By Christopher Hunt
Ryan McDermott had one of those moments. It was the kind of moment that instigates multiple cell phone calls and tell the same story over and over and over yet each time with a renewed excitement. He already had the story laid out for him. All the Duke senior needed to do was secure the happy ending.
All the background came included. McDermott, a former high school standout at Chaminade on Long Island, had raced at the New Balance Track and Field Center enough times to call home-court advantage. His older brother Kevin, a former Duke all-American and Chaminade star as well, couldn’t make the meet because he needed to attend physical therapy. Ryan’s older brother crashed his head into the bottom of a pool in Hampton Bays in July that caused a C5 spinal cord injury, instantly paralyzing him from the neck down.
He had all that back story. Then, on the first leg of the men’s championship distance medley relay at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, Texas A&M’s leadoff wiped out and caused a domino-effect and also sent Duke’s leadoff, Cory Nanni flying to the track. Nanni managed to recover and keep the Blue Devils in the race. Freshman Curtis Beach moved them up on the 400 leg and Sean-Pat Oswald handed McDermott the baton, after his 800 leg, sitting in fifth in a pack that was anyone’s race.
The crowd bunched and leaders changed and still no one made a move to break things open until McDermott burst down the back straight on the last lap for a Duke win in the championship DMR in 9:45.30.
“Usually the last lap of all my races, I start to feel a little dull,” McDermott said. “During the race I was feeling really smooth and relaxed. I knew if I got it pretty close with one or two to go that I could do it. It was one lap. It felt like a regular 200 in practice.”
McDermott said he thought the race might have been over after Nanni fell victim to the pile up on the third lap of the first leg. But, outside of Texas A&M dropping out the race, all things were mostly even when the anchor legs took over.
“There was a lot going on,” McDermott said. “The front guys, the slowed down just enough that me and the chase pack could catch up. I caught up to them in like 600 meters so I thought I was doing good. I wanted to see how it goes until 200. I was feeling great with 200 to go so I just took it. … This is a huge victory for our program. Two years ago, even last year, we had no one in any championship races.”
The Tennessee women are accustomed to championship racing at the Collegiate Invitational, especially in the distance medley relay, where they first set the American record last year. This time, the Lady Vols were again in the lead in the closing stages with NCAA 800 champ, Phoebe Wright holding the baton on the mile anchor leg. But for lap after lap she towed the field and Villanova’s Sheila Reid took advantage and pounced in the last 50 meters.
Wright nearly held her off but Reid won on a lean and Villanova claimed victory in 11:02.83. Tennessee finished in 11:02.85.
“If you’re giving the baton to someone on the anchor leg I’d want it to be Phoebe Wright,” said Chanelle Price, who put the team in the leg on the third leg. “If it comes down to 50 meters, 9 times out of 10 Phoebe’s got it. Today she didn’t. She did all the work. If it was the other way around maybe it would have been different. But it’s okay. It’s good to get your butt kicked once in a while.”
The straightaway sprints proved to be tremendous as well. Teddy Williams of Texas-San Antonio won the men’s championship 60 in 6.61. Jeneba Tarmoh of Texas A&M won the women’s championship sprint in 7.29. Syracuse’s Jerret Easton won the men’s championship 60 hurdles in a nation-leading 7.68 while Natasha Ruddock also posted a national leader in the women’s hurdles in 8.06.
Neely Spence of Shippensburg gained the automatic qualifier for the Division II nationals winning the womens’ championship 5,000 in a lifetime best 16:13.01. Spence rode George Mason’s Rochelle Sceats’ shoulder until nine laps left. Then Spence took off and buried the field.
“My goal was just to go the first two miles as easy as possible,” she said. “I wanted to save up so that I had ended on a good note.”
It was Spence’s first indoor 5,000 and with Sceats taking the pace for two miles, it set things up perfectly for Spence.
“I was hoping to find a pace,” Spence said. “I really have to give a lot of credit to those other girls. They have a lot of experience and set a really good pace. I just felt really good.”
Bo Waggoner of Duke won the men’s championship 5,000 in 14:16.37.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.