Maatoug Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships, Three Earn All-Region Honors

Friday, November 11

Louisville, Ky.

All Day

Duke University

NCAA Southeast Regional

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Maatoug Punches Ticket to NCAA Championships, Three Earn All-Region Honors

11/11/2022 4:26:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results (PDF)Women's Results (PDF)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Duke sophomore Amina Maatoug continued her stellar season, finishing sixth at the NCAA Southeast Regional Cross Country Championships to punch her ticket to the NCAA Championships next weekend. Senior Zach Kinne also turned in an outstanding race to lead the Duke men with a ninth-place showing.

Kinne, Maatoug and senior Owen MacKenzie, who took 19th in the men's 10K, both earned All-Southeast Region honors with their top-25 finishes. Kinne put himself in good contention for an at-large bid, finishing sixth among runners not on the top-two finishing teams.

The Blue Devil women finished fifth overall with 188 points. NC State captured the regional title with 25 points, while North Carolina nabbed the other automatic team bid in second. Duke's men's squad finished fifth as well, edging Eastern Kentucky by eight points with 135.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Maatoug, garnering all-region recognition for her performance, was with the front of the pack right from the opening gun, covering the first kilometer in 3:33 for eighth place overall.
The native of Leiden, Netherlands picked up the pace with leaders over the next 2,000 meters, crossing the 3K marker in fifth place at 10:08. Maatoug continued to run strong in the back half of the race and ran the final 2,000 meters in 6:29 to take sixth overall in 20:11.5, earn All-Southeast Region honors and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Kinne led the way for the Blue Devils in the men's 10K race, finishing in 29:59.9 for ninth place overall. Kinne sat in 40th place at the 4K mark with a time of 12:21.
The Sewickley, Pa., native picked up the pace in the final 6K, covering the distance in 17:38 and moving up 31 spots to take ninth. His final 2K was impressive, running it in 5:45 to move from 16th to ninth. He was the sixth finisher from a non-automatic qualifying team.
The top four earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships, leaving Kinne waiting for an at-large selection.
Coming in 13 seconds after Kinne was senior Mackenzie in 19th place at 30:12.1. Like Kinne, Mackenzie ran an excellent second half of the race, moving up six spots in the final 4K and eight spots over the course of the last 2,000 meters.
Freshman Dalia Frias was the second Blue Devil woman to come across, finishing 36th overall with a time of 21:06.6. She finished fourth among the freshmen racing.
Ashlyn Ramos checked in at 47th as the graduate student clocked 21:19.3.
Senior Emily Cole and sophomore Katie Hamilton paced each other over the 6K course, crossing the finish line in 21:21.0 and 21:24.3 for 50th and 53rd place, respectively.
On the men's side, graduate students Matyas Csiki-Fejer and Chris Theodore and senior Sam Rivera were 34th, 35th and 38th, respectively. Csiki-Fejer hit the tape in 30:26.1, while Theodore was right on his heels at 30:27.2. Rivera rounded out the top-five Blue Devils in 30:36.7.

NOTES

Maatoug is the first Blue Devil woman to qualify individually for the NCAA Championships since Juliet Bottorff did so in 2013, while Kinne is the first on the men's side to qualify individually since Shawn Thompson in 2015.
The fifth-place finish for the men is the highest finish since 2015. For the women, it is the best team finish since 2019.

QUOTES
"I am so incredibly proud of how both teams competed today, each finishing top 5 in an extremely competitive region. It was great to be led by two low sticks in Amina Maatoug and Zach Kinne, who both unofficially qualified for NCAAs individually. It will be fun to see what Amina and Zach can do at the National stage next weekend at NCAA's.

These teams have trusted me and bought into this process all year and it is encouraging seeing them run so strong when it matters most. We continue to make steps forward as a program and I am excited to build from this year and hopefully have two teams qualify next year." – head coach Angela Reckart on the team's performance.

UP NEXT
The qualifying Blue Devils will race again in the NCAA Championships on Nov. 19 on the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Okla.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

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