Seven Blue Devils Earn USTFCCCA All-America Honors, Women’s 4x400m Relay Advances to Saturday Final

AUSTIN, Texas – The Duke women’s track and field team turned in a solid day of competition on Thursday as the second day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships saw seven Blue Devil women garner United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-America honors while the women’s 4x400m relay booked its spot in Saturday’s event final.
 
Dana Baker, Megan McGinnis and Isabel Wakefield were each named second-team All-Americans in their respective events while Emily Cole, Amina Maatoug, Ilhame Tamrouti and Lauren Tolbert each claimed honorable mention accolades.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Duke women’s 4x400m relay capped the evening with a strong performance and rewrote the program record books en route to punching its ticket to Saturday’s event finals.
• The quartet of senior Carly King, freshmen Lauren Tolbert and Julia Jackson and sophomore Megan McGinnis posted the fastest time in Heat 1 and the fifth fastest of the semifinal race, clocking 3:28.84 – including blistering splits of 51.88 seconds (Jackson) and 51.80 seconds (McGinnis) in the third and fourth legs, respectively – to earn the automatic qualifier while moving up to No. 3 all-time at Duke.
• McGinnis also locked down a spot on the USTFCCCA All-America Second Team via a personal-best in the women’s 400m. The sophomore dashed 51.30 seconds to place 11th overall, with the time breaking her own Duke program record in the process.
• McGinnis becomes just the second Duke woman all-time to be named an All-American in the outdoor 400m event. She joins Brittany Aveni, who also earned a nod to the second team in 2021.
• Graduate student Isabel Wakefield secured her second-career, and first outdoor, USTFCCCA All-America honor after placing 13th in the women’s long jump. Wakefield came through with her best jump on her third attempt, flying out to 6.07m (19-11 feet) to become the first Blue Devil woman in program history to be named an All-American in the outdoor event.
• The women’s javelin competition saw two Blue Devils earn USTFCCCA All-America honors as senior Dana Baker earned a nod to the second team for the second straight year with graduate student Ilhame Tamrouti garnering  her second consecutive honorable mention accolade.
• Baker’s farthest throw came via her second attempt as she launched the javelin 51.29m…