SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Duke cross country’s Amina Maatoug turned in another outstanding race on Friday – this time at the NCAA Southeast Regional – as the junior earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships in Charlottesville, Va., next week behind a second-place finish of 19:41.0 in the women’s 6K.
Maatoug, who also earned all-region honors on the day with her performance, qualifies for the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year after earning a bid during the 2022 season following a sixth-place finish.
The Blue Devil women finished sixth overall with 180 points. NC State captured the regional title with 52 points, while Furman nabbed the other automatic team bid in second. Duke’s men’s squad finished seventh in the team standings with 232 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Duke’s women produced four finishers in the top 50 of the women’s 6K field, led by Amina Maatoug‘s runner-up finish – her second in as many meets.
- The Leiden, Netherlands product sat in 13th after the 2K marker before climbing eight spots up the leaderboard over the next 1.5K to position herself atop the pack, in fifth place.
- Maatoug rose three more spots to slot herself in second as the runners came up on the 5K checkpoint, finishing the race strong and crossing the finish line in 19:41 to lock down the runner-up performance along with All-Southeast Region honors.
- Graduate student Emily Cole was the next Blue Devil to finish, turning a career-best performance of 20:48.2 for 34th place.
- Karly Forker and Julia Fenerty finished neck-and-neck as the graduate student duo took 45th and 46th, respectively. Forker clocked 20:58.1 to narrowly edge Fenerty who finished in 20:58.2.
- Freshman Thais Rolly narrowly missed a top-50 finish as she rounded out the top-five placers for Duke with a time of 21:03.2 – good for 53rd.
- On the men’s side, it was seniors Austin Gabay and Jared Kreis who paced the Blue Devils finishing in succession of each other at 32nd and 33rd – each posting personal-best showings. Gabay ran his 10K in 29:58.4 while Kreis finished in 29:58.8.
- Classmate Sam Rivera also finished among the top-40…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at Duke University…