Men's 4x800m Relay Sets Armory Record on Day Two

Saturday, February 6

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Day Two

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Men's 4x800m Relay Sets Armory Record on Day Two

2/6/2010 9:00:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

NEW YORK CITY - The Duke University men's and women's track & field teams wrapped up a successful day two at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational with several IC4A/ECAC qualifying marks and a new venue record.

"It was unbelievable," said director of track & field Norm Ogilvie, "this weekend just kept getting better and better."

On the weekend, the Duke men swept the two distance relay events, winning both the distance medley relay on day one and the 4x800m relay on day two. With an impressive 7:26.94 clocking, the 4x800m group broke the previous venue record, a 7:30.56 clocking set by Villanova in 2009, at the Armory Track and Field Center, which has hosted competitions since 1909. The mark also easily met the IC4A qualifying standard of 7:53.00 for the event and broke the Duke school record (7:29.15) set in 2005.

Senior Sean-Pat Oswald led off the relay with a 1:53.3 split, then handed the baton to sophomore Stephen Clark, who posted a 1:52.9 time. Next up, senior Chris Rowland turned in a 1:52.8 performance. With Duke trailing leader Texas A&M heading into the final leg, freshman Curtis Beach took the lead for the Blue Devils with an outstanding 1:47.9, a time that would have met NCAA automatic qualifying standards as an individual performance.

"Curtis Beach on the anchor ran an absolutely phenomenal 1:47.9," said Ogilvie, "which is probably the fastest relay split ever recorded at Duke."

Junior Cory Nanni recovered from a hard fall on Friday and notched the final points for the Duke men on Saturday, coming in sixth in the men's championship mile with an IC4A qualifying 4:05.90 mark.

Duke had another two IC4A qualifiers in the men's 3,000m events. Junior Joshua Lund took fourth in the college 3K, besting his personal record by 11 seconds with an 8:17.76. In the championship 3K, junior Ryan McDermott came in ninth with an 8:21.28 showing.

On the women's side, three Blue Devils turned in ECAC qualifying marks in the championship 3,000m. Sophomores Suejin Ahn (9:36.14), Mary Carleton Johnston (9:39.23) and Carly Seymour (9:50.24) came in fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively. Also meeting the ECAC standards were senior Anna Farias-Eisner in the mile with a 4:53.11 and sophomore Katelyn Bastert with a 9:41.18 in the college 3,000m.

Duke will compete again this coming weekend, Feb. 19-20, at the Virginia Tech Classic in Blacksburg, Va., before gearing up for the ACC Championships on Feb. 25-27, also in Blacksburg.

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