Blue Devils Win Five Events On First Day of Hokie Invite

Friday, January 19

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Hokie Invitational

alejandro rodriguez runs at blue white scrimmage

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Blue Devils Win Five Events On First Day of Hokie Invite

1/20/2024 1:10:00 AM | Track & Field

Day 1 Results (PDF)

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Duke track and field got its weekend off to a solid start as the Blue Devils posted five event wins, set a pair of top-five program marks and finished with 10 top-five placements overall on the first day of the Hokie Invitational.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Max Forte delivered the stoutest performance of the day as he turned in the best performance of his career en route to winning the men's long jump.
Forte's third jump was indeed the charm, as the junior flew out to 7.66m (25-1.75 feet) to slot himself atop the field. Forte's leap was 25m further than his previous best and moved himself up two spots into No. 3 all-time at Duke.
Sophomore Jeremy Kain notched the first win at the Hokie Invitational for Duke via a personal best in the men's mile run. Kain turned in a time of 4:04.1 to claim the first-place finish and shaved four seconds off his previous best in the process.
Classmate Lauren Tolbert was the next Blue Devil to slot themselves atop their respective event field, sprinting her way to victory via a finish of 1:30.29, edging out former Duke track and field standouts Lauren Hoffman and Madison Mulder.
The women's 300m race saw Tina Martin have a strong showing in her first meet as a Blue Devil as she helped Duke close out Day 1 on a high note. The graduate student clocked 38.59 seconds in the event final to lock down Duke's fifth and final dub of the day.
Over in the men's 3000m, classmate Michael Keehan's run of 8:15.09 was good enough for first place.
The Blue Devils tallied additional top-five finishes in the men's long jump, men's 600m, men's 3000m, women's mile and women's 60m events.
Alejandro Rodriguez made a revision of his own to the program records in the men's 600m as the senior put on strong display of running en route to the top-three finish.
Rodriguez dashed to a personal best of 1:19.59, nearly three seconds off his previous best, to place second and move up to No. 2 all-time on the Duke charts.
Graduate student Zubeir Dugane finished runner-up in the 3000m via a time of 8:16.10, while junior Beck Wittstadt placed fifth following a run of 8:22.62.
Rounding out the day's top performers were Halle Bieber and Charlotte Tomkinson. Tomkinson took third in the women's mile run with a mark of 4:47.52 while Bieber's 60m dash of 7.48 seconds was good for fourth.
To view the full meet results, click here.

UP NEXT
Action gets going at the Carolina Challenge Saturday morning at 9 a.m., with the men's weight throw while track events are scheduled to get underway at 1:30 p.m., via the women's 60m hurdles. On day two of the Hokie Invite, the women's pole vault (11:30 a.m.) is first up on the Saturday slate for the Blue Devils before track events open with the women's DMR at 2 p.m.

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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