Van Buskirk Takes Second at NCAA Championships

Friday, March 11

College Station, Texas

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Duke University

Day One at NCAA Indoor Championships

Van Buskirk Takes Second at NCAA Championships

3/12/2011 10:26:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - A second place finish capped off a fantastic indoor season for Senior Kate Van Buskirk at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Duke sent nine athletes to this year's competition: Amy Fryt in the pole vault, Tanner Anderson in the high jump, Curtis Beach in the heptathlon and Rebecca Craigie, Devotia More, Cydney Ross and Kate Van Buskirk in the women's distance medley relay, with Esther Vermeer and Juliet Bottorff as alternates. Van Buskirk also qualified individually in the women's mile.

Van Buskirk raced early Friday and easily qualified for Saturday's mile finals. “The goal was to get All-American” Van Buskirk said, “there were 10 girls in the finals, so I only needed to beat two of them. The plan was to be very relaxed for the first kilometer and the focus on turnover for the final three laps.”

Van Buskirk lead the first few laps of the race then settled in and dropped back to sixth. With 400 meters to go, as the leaders pushed forward, Van Buskirk moved with them. With a little over 100 meters, Van Buskirk came to a realization “don't just settle for fourth, go for the win,” she recalled.

With a final surge, Van Buskirk charged down the final stretch to come only seven tenths away from walking out a national champion. Her time of 4:33.71 was personal best and broke the school record of 2007 Indoor Champion and Olympian Shannon Rowbury.

“We couldn't be happier,” said Associate Head Coach Kevin Jermyn. “It was a great weekend. She set a personal best and made it look easy.”

The weekend was not as fortuitous for the rest of Duke's athletes as numerous roadblocks popped up during competition.

Two-time ACC pole vault champion Amy Fryt has been battling knee problems all year and the harder surface of Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium at Texas A&M caused another flare up. Pushing through the pain, Fryt was able to clear opening height of 13'1.5” on her third attempt but was unable to clear the next height of 13'5.25”. Associate Head Coach Shawn Wilbourn noted, “it's unfortunate the meet played out in this way, but she went out there against the best in the country and competed tough.” Fryt finished 12^th at the meet.

Sophomore Curtis Beach, who holds the world record in 1,000 meters in the heptathlon and came in tied for the second best score in the nation, couldn't put everything together in the two-day event. A strong showing in the 60 meter dash and long jump kept him in contention, but a rough outing in the shot put and high jump dropped him down to 14^th. He fought his way back in the 60 meter hurdles and pole vault and won the 1,000 meters, only two seconds off his world record time, to finish 13^th overall.

“There was a lot of pressure going into the meet,” said Beach's event coach Wilbourn. “He's still young. He'll learn from this and things will come together with maturity.”

Freshman Tanner Anderson, who has also been fighting a back injury this year, was unable to clear opening height in his first collegiate national championship.

A young DMR squad had a difficult first trip to the Indoor Championships when a spill during Rebecca Craigie's 1,200 meters forced her to the back of the pack. The team was forced to run alone for the majority of the race, with Bottorff replacing Van Buskirk on the anchor, to close out in 11:23.27.

“It wasn't the ideal situation, but the ladies handled it as best as possible” said Jermyn “They were excited to be there and it was a great experience for them for their individual races moving into outdoor season.”

These outstanding student-athletes will rest and recover from the meet while the rest of the team comes back to open up the outdoor season at the Wake Forest Open.

-D-U-K-E-