6 | MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2012
THE CHRONICLE
CROSS COUNTRY
Blue Devils take on the ACC Championships The women take 2nd place
Moverman shines but the men unable to meet expectations
by Sarah Elsakr
by Sarah Elsakr
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
After receiving their new and improved ranking as first in the region, the Blue Devils stepped up to the line at the ACC meet this past weekend and proved they deserved it. Duke left the meet in high spirits after a strong effort put them in second place as a team. “We’re really pleased with the weekend, the girls ran well,” head coach Kevin Jermyn said. “Juliet [Bottorff] did great. When she races, she races so well, especially in the bigger meets. She continues to maintain great composure.” Bottorff was the frontrunner for the team yet again this weekend, leading the Blue Devils with a finish in 20:10.6. When she crossed the line to earn her third-place spot, she also earned All-ACC honors for the third time in her collegiate career. When sophomore Kelsey Lakowske followed Bottorff across the line just 13.1 seconds later, it was somewhat of a surprise. Although Lakowske had shown that she was
Despite their impressive showing at the Pre-National meet just two weeks ago, the No. 18 Blue Devils were unable to pull together for the finish they needed at this past weekend’s ACC Championship meet. The men came in at fifth overall, with one runner, senior Mike Moverman, finishing in the top nine to earn AllACC honors on the 8K course. “Mike had a great race and Christian Britto had a great race,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “Mike ran only four seconds slower than he did at the Pre-Nationals course and the ACC course is... more difficult. But he showed that you can run very close to the same time and then some of our other guys ran maybe 20, 30 seconds slower than they did at Pre-Nationals.” Moverman headed into the race looking for a top-nine finish and managed to cross the line in 24:02.9, four seconds
SARAH ELSAKR/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
Kelsey Lakowske surprised by finishing sixth overall, earning All-ACC honors alongside teammate Juliet Bottorff. capable of strong results in Wisconsin, she had missed a number of other meets and this past weekend marked only her third career race. Despite her lack of experience, Lakowske showed she was more than capable of rising to
ahead of the man behind him. The top finish earned him his first All-ACC honor in his Duke career. Graduate student James Kostelnik made it to his 21st-place finish in 24:31.3 and his teammate Britto, a junior, also posted a strong performance, taking the number four spot for the Blue Devil team. Britto broke 25 minutes for the first time in his career this past Saturday, crossing the line in 24:49.0. Despite their success, though, the rest of the team was unable to pull together in the race. “I wouldn’t count it as an average day,” Ogilvie said. “It was an above-average day for Mike Moverman, and an above-average day for Christian Britto, and not as good as they could’ve run for a couple other guys.... You take two guys running significantly slower than before and that tight, four-man pack you had before is not a tight, fourman pack anymore.” After Moverman, junior Brian Atkinson led the rest of the team across the finish line, taking 17th and second
the challenge as she crossed the line second for Duke and sixth overall. Like Bottorff’s, Lakowske’s finish earned her All-ACC honors. “I’m very happy with how she’s racing,” Jermyn said. “And she continues to get better.” Shortly after Lakowske’s finish, senior Madeline Morgan followed her across the finish line leading a pack of three runners—sophomore Carolyn Baskir, graduate student Suejin Ahn and senior Ashley Brasovan. Baskir came in 20th overall with a time of 21:00.4 and Ahn followed less than two seconds later. Brasovan rounded out the pack with her personal-best time of 21:06.8. Junior Jessie Rubin came in 51 seconds later in 44th, leading classmate Gabby Levac who came in 61st. Junior Dana Morin and freshman Olivia Anderson closed out the race for Duke, coming in 65th and 76th, respectively. Although frontrunners such as Bottorff and Lakowske certainly helped the team along to their top-two finish, according to Lakowske even individual success has its basis in team support. “It always helps to have teammates that are so talented and experienced,” Lakowske said. “[Their support] really makes coming into these meets... a lot easier for me. I’m really grateful to have them to run with because they inspire me to keep going, to train hard, to make the right decisions.” Lakowske and her teammates will have just two weeks to train before their appearance at the NCAA Regional meet. After their success at the ACC meet, though, the Blue Devils are looking forward to the chance to race again, albeit with more at stake. SHAYAN ASADI/CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO
Mike Moverman earned All-ACC honors for the Blue Devils, but the team struggled overall at the meet. for Duke in 24:18.9. Kostelnik came through soon afterward followed by Britto, who was just 0.6 seconds ahead of sophomore Shaun Thompson. Shortly afterward junior Lucas Talavan-Becker rounded out the top-seven runners for Duke with his 41st-place finish. According to Moverman, the poor result at the past weekend’s meet could have been caused by a mediocre race day combined with the competitiveness of the field. “The team as a whole did a little worse than we could have,” Moverman said. “At the ACC the points are so tight... that it gets exaggerated.” Regardless of the reason this meet did not go quite as planned, both the runners and Ogilvie maintain that it will have little to no effect on their overall goals—peaking at the NCAA Regional meet and performing well at the NCAA Championship. Their training has been geared towards setting up a strong performance at the Regional meet in hopes of earning a top-two finish and an automatic bid. In addition, regardless of today’s results, Duke’s strong showing at the Pre-National meet, where it finished ahead of many nationally-ranked teams and earned its No.18 national ranking, will provide points towards qualification for the national meet if the men are unable to finish in the top two. “Our whole goal from the beginning of the season till now is really the Regional race... everything else is sort of like the cherry on top,” Moverman said. “It’s actually a lot better that we ran well at Pre-Nationals than if we did well at ACC’s. It’s nice to win ACC Championships, but our main goal is to do well at the National meet.”