Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis at The Citadel on April 12, 2026 at 12:30 p.m.
/
12:30 p.m.
Men's Tennis
at The Citadel
Elizabeth Kerpon Senior Profile
3/16/2015 8:00:00 AM | Track & Field, Athletics
DURHAM, N.C. – Recently, GoDuke.com sat down with senior Elizabeth Kerpon to learn more about the Coppell, Texas, native.
GoDuke.com: What has been your favorite place to compete with Track?
Elizabeth Kerpon: Definitely Hayward Field in Oregon. Qualifying for nationals last year, we were the first 4x400 relay in school history to go, which obviously meant a lot to all of us. Competing on track's biggest stage was just surreal. To have so many fans, it was so loud, such an incredible atmosphere. It was incredible. I loved every second of it and can't wait to be back this year.
GoDuke.com: What is a road trip memory that will stick with you?
EK: I traveled to Penn State with the DMR last year, and we had a flight into Washington D.C. and then we were going to fly into State College. But then our flight from DC to State College got cancelled, and [former Duke coach] Kevin [Jermyn] just decided that we were going to rent a car and drive. And one of the Flotrack guys was actually supposed to be on our flight as well from DC to State College, so we ended up driving him, too. He gave us a shout out on Flotrack while we were running, said that he got to ride up with us, so that was something funny. It wasn't the greatest situation, but it was a really cool experience to be able to talk to him and get a shout out from him.
GoDuke.com: If you had a chance to do a field event, what would it be?
EK: I'm always envious of the throwers. The things that they do are so technical. I don't think that I have that technical skill needed. But it's so impressive that they can throw either the javelin, which is really cool, or the shot put. It's so heavy. I lift up the shot put and I'm just like, "What on earth? How can they do that?" It's so impressive what they can do, but it doesn't come with the pain of the 400's.
GoDuke.com: What is one lesson competing in track has taught you that you can use the rest of your life?
EK: The major takeaway from track is a lot of people see it as such an individual sport. It's just you going out there against your time or everybody else's time. But I think a lot of people don't really understand the team aspect of it that comes with a relay or competing with a team for an ACC championship or something like that. So it's taught me a lot of teamwork skills, but more self-motivation, as well as team-motivation. And I think having those skills combined in track and field is something that's really unique to the sport and it's a really cool thing to develop over time. Being able to motivate yourself to be better every week, like go for a PR every single time, but also compete for Duke or compete for your team and be accountable to your teammates is something that's really important and you can definitely carry that over I think in anything that you do. Just that accountability but also that personal drive to always do better.
GoDuke.com: What does it mean to wear that D on your jersey and to represent Duke?
EK: It's an incredible opportunity. I'm thankful every day to be able to represent Duke, and I think the uniform itself represents the highest level of academics and athletics that the University itself represents. I think putting it on, every time I put it on it's a reminder of that tradition. It's like a challenge to uphold that tradition and add to it every time I compete. It's been such an honor, the best experience of my life by far, and I couldn't have asked for anything more.
GoDuke.com: What do you do in your free time?
EK: I'm involved in a campus ministry. It's called CREW. So that kind of gives me an outlet of friends and community outside of the track team. I spend most of my time with my teammates, obviously, So that's a cool outlet to gather as a Christian community and interact with some people off the team. It's been a really fun support group over the years. Me and my roommate - I live with Lauren Hansson, who's also on the track team and on the relay - we spend a lot of our time watching Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder and the Bachelor. And that's a lot of girls on the team. We like to have our parties where we watch the Bachelor on Monday nights and relax and take our time and develop those friendships off the track, as well. I think that has been really important during my time here.
GoDuke.com: Favorite coach Matt LoPiccolo story?
EK: He's been such a great addition to our program. We love him. The whole family, honestly.
Amanda's our chiropractor and she's been great. Owen is the cutest baby in the entire world. He comes to practice and we all light up. He's there after hard workouts to make you feel better always. His [Matt's] enthusiasm is just so awesome and it just spreads. Every time you're around him you just want to do better because he's just so excited for you and so enthusiastic about what's going to happen. So I think my favorite thing that he does is before all the races, he does a sprinter hand high-five because he's always yelling at us to use our sprinter hands, like wide open, five fingers. It's just rigidity. He always promotes rigidity in our running to make sure we have good form. So he's always yelling at us about sprinter hands. Before all of our races, he gives all of us sprinter hand high-fives.
#GoDuke
GoDuke.com: What has been your favorite place to compete with Track?
Elizabeth Kerpon: Definitely Hayward Field in Oregon. Qualifying for nationals last year, we were the first 4x400 relay in school history to go, which obviously meant a lot to all of us. Competing on track's biggest stage was just surreal. To have so many fans, it was so loud, such an incredible atmosphere. It was incredible. I loved every second of it and can't wait to be back this year.
GoDuke.com: What is a road trip memory that will stick with you?
EK: I traveled to Penn State with the DMR last year, and we had a flight into Washington D.C. and then we were going to fly into State College. But then our flight from DC to State College got cancelled, and [former Duke coach] Kevin [Jermyn] just decided that we were going to rent a car and drive. And one of the Flotrack guys was actually supposed to be on our flight as well from DC to State College, so we ended up driving him, too. He gave us a shout out on Flotrack while we were running, said that he got to ride up with us, so that was something funny. It wasn't the greatest situation, but it was a really cool experience to be able to talk to him and get a shout out from him.
GoDuke.com: If you had a chance to do a field event, what would it be?
EK: I'm always envious of the throwers. The things that they do are so technical. I don't think that I have that technical skill needed. But it's so impressive that they can throw either the javelin, which is really cool, or the shot put. It's so heavy. I lift up the shot put and I'm just like, "What on earth? How can they do that?" It's so impressive what they can do, but it doesn't come with the pain of the 400's.
GoDuke.com: What is one lesson competing in track has taught you that you can use the rest of your life?
EK: The major takeaway from track is a lot of people see it as such an individual sport. It's just you going out there against your time or everybody else's time. But I think a lot of people don't really understand the team aspect of it that comes with a relay or competing with a team for an ACC championship or something like that. So it's taught me a lot of teamwork skills, but more self-motivation, as well as team-motivation. And I think having those skills combined in track and field is something that's really unique to the sport and it's a really cool thing to develop over time. Being able to motivate yourself to be better every week, like go for a PR every single time, but also compete for Duke or compete for your team and be accountable to your teammates is something that's really important and you can definitely carry that over I think in anything that you do. Just that accountability but also that personal drive to always do better.
GoDuke.com: What does it mean to wear that D on your jersey and to represent Duke?
EK: It's an incredible opportunity. I'm thankful every day to be able to represent Duke, and I think the uniform itself represents the highest level of academics and athletics that the University itself represents. I think putting it on, every time I put it on it's a reminder of that tradition. It's like a challenge to uphold that tradition and add to it every time I compete. It's been such an honor, the best experience of my life by far, and I couldn't have asked for anything more.
GoDuke.com: What do you do in your free time?
EK: I'm involved in a campus ministry. It's called CREW. So that kind of gives me an outlet of friends and community outside of the track team. I spend most of my time with my teammates, obviously, So that's a cool outlet to gather as a Christian community and interact with some people off the team. It's been a really fun support group over the years. Me and my roommate - I live with Lauren Hansson, who's also on the track team and on the relay - we spend a lot of our time watching Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder and the Bachelor. And that's a lot of girls on the team. We like to have our parties where we watch the Bachelor on Monday nights and relax and take our time and develop those friendships off the track, as well. I think that has been really important during my time here.
GoDuke.com: Favorite coach Matt LoPiccolo story?
EK: He's been such a great addition to our program. We love him. The whole family, honestly.
Amanda's our chiropractor and she's been great. Owen is the cutest baby in the entire world. He comes to practice and we all light up. He's there after hard workouts to make you feel better always. His [Matt's] enthusiasm is just so awesome and it just spreads. Every time you're around him you just want to do better because he's just so excited for you and so enthusiastic about what's going to happen. So I think my favorite thing that he does is before all the races, he does a sprinter hand high-five because he's always yelling at us to use our sprinter hands, like wide open, five fingers. It's just rigidity. He always promotes rigidity in our running to make sure we have good form. So he's always yelling at us about sprinter hands. Before all of our races, he gives all of us sprinter hand high-fives.
#GoDuke
Players Mentioned
Sprints
/ Track & Field
Sprints
/ Track & FieldHap Zarzour Celebration
Thursday, November 20
Celebrating 10 Years of ACE!
Thursday, July 10
Celebrating 10 Years of ACE
Wednesday, July 09
Duke Athletics - Top 5 Plays of February!
Thursday, March 13
