Blue Devils Sweep 4x400m Relay

Saturday, January 15

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two at Virginia Tech Invitational

Photo by: Tom Connelly

Blue Devils Sweep 4x400m Relay

1/15/2022 8:21:00 PM | Track & Field

Virginia Tech Invitational Final Results

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Duke track and field swept both men's and women's 4x400m relays to highlight day two of the Virginia Tech Invitational.

The Blue Devils wrapped up the meet with another solid showing and posted 16 top-five placements overall. Additionally, junior Kinsie Huggins broke her previous PR and moved into fourth all-time on the Duke women's shot put list following a throw of 14.27m (46-10 feet).

"I thought we did a great job as a team getting points from almost every event group that competed," said director of track & field and cross country Shawn Wilbourn. "We did well in the middle distance, in the throws with Kinsie [Huggins], the jumps and the sprints. It was a team effort and it really bodes well for down the road."

Both of Duke's first-place finishes came in the final track event of the day. The men's team of graduate students Miles Mingo and Alex Schwedt along with sophomores Alejandro Rodriguez and Job Trahan posted a time of 3:14.86 to claim the top spot in the event.

The women's relay team of junior Jenna Crean, freshman Abby Geiser, graduate student Lauren Hoffman and sophomore Hailey Williams completed the event sweep for Duke, running the race in 3:43.21. Duke's second 4x400m relay team comprised of junior Carly King, senior Nikki Merritt and freshmen Megan McGinnis and Chyler Turner wasn't too far behind, clocking 3:45.95 to place second.

Junior Brynn King began the morning with a top-five placement in the pole vault with a recorded height of 4.09m (13-5 feet) to finish fourth among the field in the seeded event. Up next was the women's high jump, which saw senior Isabel Wakefield and junior Hannah Kelly tie for fifth at a height of 1.61m (5-3 ¼ feet). On the men's side of the event, junior Beau Allen tallied a mark of 2.05m (6-8 ¾ feet) for a fifth-place finish.

Rodriguez kicked off the track events with another top-five finish, completing the 400m run in 49.25 seconds, good for fifth. Graduate student Drake Anzano, sophomores Carter Dillon and Jack Kovach along with freshman Bri'Yon Watts made up the men's DMR team and the quartet took third with a 10:00.71 finish.

The women's and men's 800m combined for four of the Blue Devils' top-five finishes. Senior Rylee Bowen, McGinnis and junior Naima Turbes took three of the top five spots with the latter two runners competing in the event for the first time. McGinnis took second with a time of 2:15.50, Bowen was right behind in third at 2:17.95 and Turbes' 2:20.86 finish was good for fifth. Freshman Beck Wittstadt was the lone Duke runner in the men's 800m run and took third after clocking 1:53.12.

Hoffman and Crean represented the Blue Devils in the 200m dash. Hoffman notched an indoor PR of 24.61 seconds to finish third in the field and Crean's time of 24.77 seconds was good for fifth. Junior Ezra Mellinger closed out the field events for Duke in the long jump and took fourth on a 7.43m (24-4 ½ feet) leap.

"The goal of this meet was to get our feet wet and establish a baseline," Wilbourn added. "I thought we set the bar pretty high for the first meet."

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

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