Men's Cross Country Takes Third At Blue Ridge Open

Friday, October 17

Boone, N.C.

4:00 PM

Duke University

326

Blue Ridge Open

Men's Cross Country Takes Third At Blue Ridge Open

10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country

By: Duke Sports Information

BOONE, N.C. ? The Duke men's cross country team, which received a bump up to fifth in the Southeast Region last week, took third overall in the gold race at the Blue Ridge Open Friday afternoon at Appalachian State University's State Farm Complex.

The men improved to 46-10 on the season, picking up 23 wins and just two losses on the day.

North Carolina won the race with 43 points, followed by Queens University ? the fifth-ranked Division II school ? in second with 53. Duke was third with 62 team points. Appalachian State took fourth with 119, while two ACC rivals, Clemson and Miami, were fifth and 19th, respectively in the 26-team field.

“Bo Waggoner improved greatly at this meet from last year and is emerging as one of the ACC's top young distance runners,” said head coach Norm Ogilvie. “We need to get stronger as a team over the next two weeks to have a chance to compete with North Carolina at the ACC Championships.”

Bo Waggoner was Duke's top finisher and the top Division I finisher, taking fifth overall as he covered the 8K course in 24:38, seven seconds faster than he ran at the meet last season.

No. 2 for Duke and 18th overall was junior James Osborne, running 25:11, followed by Tradelle Ward in 20th (25:16). Josh Lund was 24th in 25:25, while Cory Nanni took 27th in 25:28 to round out the Blue Devil scoring.

In the open race, Duke was first with 15 points, led by freshman Johns Ross in second with a time of 26:09. The Blue Devils then swept spots five through eight, as Geary Gubbins, Guillermo Echarte, Kevin McDermott, and Ken Sullivan finished within 10 seconds of each other.

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