Duke Men Sweep Day One Distance Events in New York

Friday, February 5

New York, N.Y.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Duke Men Sweep Day One Distance Events in New York

2/5/2010 10:00:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A dramatic finish capped the day one results for the Duke University track & field squads as the Blue Devils captured two championship titles at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City.

Junior Bo Waggoner won the men's 5,000m, while the Duke men's distance medley relay squad of junior Cory Nanni, freshman Curtis Beach, senior Sean-Pat Oswald and senior Ryan McDermott battled back from a tough start to take the championship crown. The wins were the first for the Blue Devils in a championship event at the prestigious Armory Collegiate, a meet which features over 100 college teams from around the country.

"They are two fantastic wins," said director of track & field Norm Ogilvie. "We beat some of the biggest programs in the country, such as Arkansas, Texas A&M and Tennessee, and it's just tremendous for our program. We've never won a single championship race here and then we won two in one day; that's phenomenal."

Distance specialist Waggoner remained undefeated on the year with an IC4A 5,000m qualifying 14:16.37, the second-best mark in the event in Blue Devil history. In fourth place was Devil sophomore Andrew Brodeur, whose 14:24.10 clocking ranks fifth in the Duke record books. Also, in the 5,000m were sophomore James Kostelnik (14:25.38) and senior James Osborne (14:44.76), who finished sixth and twelfth, respectively.

Despite Duke's many successes on Friday, the day belonged to the men's DMR in the final event of the evening. The squad took first with a 9:45.30 clocking, the fourth-best time in Duke history, a feat made all the more remarkable after an early fall almost took the Blue Devils out of the race. In the opening 1,200m leg, Nanni went down hard after trying to avoid other fallen runners and Duke slipped to last place before the Bloomington, Ind., native got to his feet to finish with a 3:02.7 split.

"Nanni went down really hard and when the dust settled, he was lying on the track and we were dead last," said Ogilvie. "Running with that much momentum, you can't just stop in your tracks. He instinctively bounced back up and continued running and I think he inspired the other three guys because it was such a gutsy thing to do. If you go down that hard when you're going that fast, you're done; you get the wind knocked out of you severely. He just got back up and ran really, really well. We had a lot of ground to make up, but he couldn't have handled it better."

Beach followed up Nanni's determined performance with a personal-best 47.7 for 400m, then Oswald turned in a 1:51.60 in the 800m leg. McDermott capped the remarkable relay with a 4:03.40 for 1,600m, only taking the lead in the final 200 meters of the race.

"We came back from dead last to win," Oglivie said. "Ryan [McDermott] took the lead right at the end. Just two weeks ago, he ran a personal best in the mile with a 4:07 and then had a 4:03 tonight. He's really coming into his own this year."

Not to be outdone, the women started the day for the Devils on a strong note with junior Kristina Krasich (9:48.20) and sophomore Amanda Truelove (9:48.86) finishing one-two in the women's Eastern 3,000m with two ECAC qualifying times.

In the women's 60m hurdles, senior Karolina Haraldsdottir recorded a personal-best 9.35, and on the men's side, Beach also turned in a personal best with a 8.39 showing in the event.

Four more Blue Devils met ECAC/IC4A qualifying standards as junior Michael Kotecki registered a 2.04m in the men's high jump, while junior Devotia Moore (2:52.24), sophomore Leslie Morrison (2:53.79) and senior Emily Sherrard (2:53.96) swept the top three spots in their section for the 1,000m.

Action continues tomorrow with the women's 3,000m at 9:20 a.m. and Nanni will close out the Devils' weekend in the men's championship mile at 5:18 p.m.

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