Duke Track & Field Wraps Up At ACC Championships

Saturday, February 28

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three

Armory Collegiate Invitational Awaits Duke Track & Field

Duke Track & Field Wraps Up At ACC Championships

2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

BLACKSBURG, Va. ? The Duke men's and women's track & field teams each improved their scoring outputs and turned in solid outings as the 2009 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships concluded this evening at Virginia Tech's Rector Field House. The women improved from 11th to 9th place, scoring 26.33 points as compared to last season's 18, while the men moved up to 10th from 11th and quadrupled last season's total of seven points by scoring 28 on the weekend.

“I thought the kids competed great and really went after it,” said Director of Track & Field Norm Ogilvie. “We're very proud of them. This just shows how strong the conference is. It's fair to say that the ACC has gone to a new level in terms of the performances we saw this weekend and just the high level of competition.”

“Duke Track is getting better, but the conference is getting better, too. We are excited to go up to Boston next weekend for the IC4A and ECAC Championships, and hope to continue to build on out very good indoor season.”

For the men, Michael Barbas emerged as a standout performer on the final day of competition, improving his personal-best throw to 55-9 in the shot put, good for an IC4A mark for the freshman, as he took sixth in the conference. Mike Schallmo's toss of 52-8 ? placed him ninth in the event.

Jade Ellis came away as the top overall scorer for Duke on the weekend, as he took fifth in tonight's triple jump competition in an IC4A distance of 49-8.5, after taking fourth in the long jump to notch nine total points.

Cory Nanni ran an IC4A-qualifying 4:04.97 in the mile, taking seventh, although he was just over one second off the leader. Coming around the final turn, eight athletes were still in contention for the title. The men's 800 meters saw Chris Rowland in the lead for 700 meters before taking seventh in the event in 1:53.97, an IC4A time and just three seconds off the leader.

Bo Waggoner finished eighth in the 3000 meters in an IC4A time of 8:18.02.

For the women, the Blue Devils went 3-4 in the mile as Molly Lehman earned All-ACC honors with her third-place run of 4:43.35, an ECAC standard and another NCAA Provisional mark as well. Anna Farias-Eisner was fourth in the mile in an ECAC and NCAA ?P' time of 4:46.02. The duo grabbed 11 combined points, making it the single largest scoring event for Duke in the meet.

Amy Fryt was the Blue Devils' other All-ACC performer, as she leapt to a three-way tie for second place in the pole vault with a personal-best height of 13-1.5 (or four meters), as she is now only the second Duke athlete to jump over four meters on the women's side. The mark was both an ECAC and NCAA Provisional mark for Fryt.

Next up for the track & field squads are the IC4A and ECAC Championships next weekend, March 7-8, in Boston, Mass.

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