No. 25 Duke Women Win ACC Indoor Championship

Saturday, February 26

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three at ACC Indoor Championships

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 25 Duke Women Win ACC Indoor Championship

2/26/2022 10:09:00 PM | Track & Field

Final Results (PDF)

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Déjà vu was in the Rector Fieldhouse air Saturday afternoon for the 25th-ranked Duke women's track and field team. In a finish eerily similar to last May's ACC Outdoor Women's Championship, the Blue Devil women headlined a historic day for the Blue Devils as they delivered a first-place finish in the women's 4x400m relay to claim the 2022 ACC Indoor Championship and bring the trophy back to Durham.

The Duke women shared the title with host Virginia Tech as the teams totaled 86 points apiece. The men placed seventh among the field with 45 points.

Coming into the final day of the conference meet in third (33 points), the Blue Devils were within striking distance, but needed another strong day of competition to claim the ACC crown. The stakes were almost identical as the ones nine months ago. The tightly contested women's meet came down to the final event – Duke entered as the favorites but trailed the Hokies by 10 points, 86-76, needing to win the women's 4x400m relay and for Virginia Tech to finish eighth or worse to secure at least a share of the team title.

Duke's quartet of Jenna Crean, Erin Marsh, Megan McGinnis and Lauren Hoffman answered the bell and produced a run of 3:38.05 to come-from-behind and claim the gold medal. Duke got off to strong start in the relay but sat in third after the first two legs. McGinnis made up ground in a split of 53.45 seconds – the fastest of her leg and second-fastest of the race – to position the Blue Devils in second heading into the final leg. Hoffman and the Miami anchor were neck-and-neck heading into the final two turns, but Hoffman dug deep, driving to create just enough separation and lead Duke to victory while getting exactly what they needed - Virginia Tech finished 10th to deliver the Blue Devils another ACC Championship.

The men's team concluded the conference meet on a high note, moving up the leaderboard behind 28 points via a pair of historic performances in the mile run and pole vault, as the Blue Devils captured championships in those respective events for the first time in over 40 years.

Graduate student Nick Dahl opened Saturday's slate in the mile run and left no doubt as to why he entered the event as the number one overall seed. Dahl stayed at the head of the pack and made crafty moves throughout the race. Heading into the final stretch with the last few turns approaching, the Philadelphia, Pa., native turned on the jets and sprinted his way to victory. Dahl claimed the gold medal with a 4:04.72 finish and became the first Duke men's indoor champion in the mile since Bob Wheeler in 1973.

In the first women's event of the day, the Blue Devils collected 21 critical points as Marsh won the women's 60m hurdles. The graduate student clocked 8.17 seconds to become the first Duke women's track athlete ever to win an ACC Championship in the hurdles, earning her eighth All-ACC First Team and 15th-career conference honor in the process. Senior Isabel Wakefield earned bronze following her finish of 8:33 seconds and picked up her second first team honor of the weekend, while freshman Chyler Turner ran a personal best of 8.37 seconds (4th) in her ACC Indoors debut to achieve All-ACC Second Team status. Turner's time also improved her No. 5 mark in the program record books.

Michael Fairbanks catapulted into the Duke record books with a historic performance in the pole vault. After passing on the first two bars, the graduate student cleared the next three on his first attempt, claiming the crown with a height of 5.26m (17-3 feet). Fairbanks became the first Duke men's ACC indoor pole vault champion since Mike Shankle's 1978 title, and the fourth overall. Classmate Erick Duffy took silver and earned a spot on the first team. Duffy registered the same height as Fairbanks, but needed two attempts to clear it.

The 25th-ranked women added another medal and more points to their total via a trio of events, starting with a solid display in the 400m dash. Crean led the way with a bronze medal finish of 53.60 (PR) in the 400m to earn All-ACC First Team honors. The junior erased a full second off her previous best and leapfrogged into the No. 4 all-time spot. Hoffman (fourth) and McGinnis (sixth) grabbed spots on the second team with PR's of 53.76 seconds and 54.08 seconds, respectively. The trio combined for 14 team points.

After taking the bronze medal in Friday's 5000m, graduate student Michaela Reinhart garnered All-ACC Second Team status following another strong showing – this time in the 3000m run. Reinhart shaved two seconds off her previous best and improved her No. 2 all-time mark at Duke behind a run of 9:04. 95 seconds. She now owns nine career All-ACC accolades.

Junior Halle Bieber earned her first All-ACC honor and secured a spot on the second team thanks to a personal-best performance in the 200m. Bieber dashed 23.72 seconds to place fourth among the field, while vaulting into the No. 2 spot in program lore.

The men's 4x400m relay of Job Trahan, Alex Schwedt, Jackson Walker and Miles Mingo tallied the last few points for the Duke men via a fourth-place finish of 3:14.00. The quartet earned All-ACC Second Team honors. Donovan Spearman finished his ACC Indoors debut with All-ACC Second Team honors behind a sixth-place run of 6.81 seconds in the 60m dash.

Up Next:
Several Blue Devils now await their fates on qualification for the NCAA Indoor Championships, hosted in Birmingham, Ala., March 11-12.
To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

#GoDuke

ACC Medalists