McKeever Leads Duke In First Two Days Of ACC Championships

Thursday, February 28

Chapel Hill, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Two Meets On Tap For Blue Devils This Weekend

McKeever Leads Duke In First Two Days Of ACC Championships

2/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Duke Track and Field team began the ACC Championships on a positive note on Thursday and Friday at the Eddie Smith Field House on the campus of the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. The women are currently in 10th place with 13 points and the men are tied for eighth with five points. Results for the ACC Championships are available on www.flashresults.com and highlights and live coverage can be seen on www.ACCSelect.com.

Women's: Sophomore Karolina Haraldsdottir placed third in the pentathlon on Thursday. Her score of 3,256 is a personal best and is the third-highest mark in school history. The pentathlon consists of the 55m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m.

In the mile run trials, junior Molly Lehman ran a 4:57.71 for seventh place, qualifying for the mile finals on Saturday at 12 p.m. That time qualified her for the ECAC's in the event for the third time this season.

Freshman Amy Fryt had a big meet as she placed sixth in the pole vault, scoring Duke its first three team points. Fryt's height of 11'-11.75” earned her a bid at the ECAC's next weekend and also is good for the fourth-best mark in school history.

The highlight of the first two days for the Blue Devils was junior Maddie McKeever in the 5,000m. McKeever won the event in a time of 16:06.54, which is below the NCAA automatic qualifying standard and ranks second in the Duke record books in the 5,000m. She is the only Blue Devil to qualify for the NCAA's this season, as she did so provisionally in the 3,000m on Feb. 9.

Finishing up the big day for the Duke women was the distance medley relay team of sophomore Emily Sherrard, senior captain Allison Stankavage, sophomore Katie Doswell and freshman Emily Schwitzer. The quartet became the third DMR squad to qualify for the ECAC's for the Blue Devils this season, as they placed ninth in a time of 11:58.89.

Men's: Over Thursday and Friday, sophomore Buzz Moorman competed in the heptathlon, which is made up of the 55m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 55m hurdles, pole vault and 1000m. Moorman took 10th place with a score of 4,231, which ranks him third all-time at Duke in the heptathlon.

Freshman Cory Nanni earned a spot in the mile finals when he clocked in at 4:15.51 in the preliminaries. That time was the eighth-fastest on the day. The mile finals are on Saturday at 12:15 p.m.

Nanni, and senior captains Matt Danforth, John Brockardt and Chris Spooner made up the distance medley relay team that clocked in at 9:59.93 and finished fourth. The squad earned an IC4A bid, becoming the third Duke DMR to do that this year.

The Duke Indoor Track and Field Team will go back to work on Saturday in Chapel Hill with 10 events still to compete in. The team's next meet is March 8 and 9 at the IC4A and ECAC Championships in Boston, Mass.

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