Tag: Duke Track and Field

Duke track and field star Simen Guttormsen makes Norwegian Olympic team

Simen Guttormsen, who recently won the ACC men’s pole vault title, will compete in Paris this summer under the Norwegian flag.

Simen Guttormsen has already had a phenomenal year in 2024, but his best accomplishment yet came on Wednesday.

Guttormsen qualified for the Norwegian Olympic team in the men’s pole vault, meaning he will compete in Paris this summer at the world’s largest sporting event.

The European star spent the past four seasons with Princeton before transferring to Durham, and he took the ACC by storm as a graduate student. He took home the gold at the ACC Outdoor Championships in men’s pole vault, setting a program record in the process at 5.65 meters.

He finished third in the same event at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships last month, the highest finish in school history, en route to earning First Team All-American honors.

He and fellow Blue Devil Gemma Tutton made history at the conference’s outdoor championships as Duke took home gold in the men’s and women’s pole vault in the same year for the first time ever.

Former Blue Devil Lauren Hoffman qualifies for the 2024 Olympic Games

Lauren Hoffman, a five-year star on the Duke track team, will run the 400-meter hurdles for the Philippines this summer in Paris.

Former Duke track star Lauren Hoffman can call herself an Olympian.

Hoffman qualifies for the 400-meter hurdles with the Philippines on Wednesday, booking her first ticket to the Olympic Games in her illustrious career.

The five-year Duke track star specialized in 400m events during her years in Durham (2017-22). She earned her first two All-ACC First Team nominations in 2019, first as an individual in the 400m during the outdoor season before being part of a 4x400m relay during the indoor season.

Her 2021 season remains one of the most decorated campaigns in recent Duke track history. She made the USTFCCCA All-American First Team squad in the outdoor 4x400m relay and the USTFCCCA All-American Second Team in the 400m hurdles, and she won the ACC silver medal and made the All-ACC First Team squad in the latter event.

Hoffman also earned two All-ACC Second Team nominations in the indoor distance medley relay in 2019 and 2020.

Duke’s Shawn Wilbourn named ACC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year

After the Blue Devils won their second consecutive ACC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field title, Shawn Wilbourn took home more hardware.

For the third time in four years, Duke’s Shawn Wilbourn was named the ACC Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year.

Wilbourn, who also won the honor in 2021 and 2023, led the Blue Devils to a second straight conference crown in early May. No ACC women’s outdoor team had won the title in consecutive seasons during the 15-team era.

Lauren Tolbert, one of his track stars, earned First Team All-American honors in the 800-meter race this month as well.

Wilbourn joined the Blue Devils coaching staff back in 2008 but spent more than a decade as the school’s associate head coach. After Norm Ogilvie stepped down as the Director of Track & Field back in the summer of 2020, Wilbourn stepped in as the interim coach before taking the position full-time the following year.

No other Duke track and field coach in school history has earned ACC Coach of the Year honors.

Duke track star Lauren Tolbert named First Team All-American in women’s 800-meter

Lauren Tolbert, who already owns the school record in the women’s 800-meter race, earned First Team All-American honors in that event on Saturday.

Duke track star Lauren Tolbert earned First Team All-American honors in the women’s 800-meter race on Saturday.

Tolbert raced in the 800m final at the NCAA Championships over the weekend, finishing in two minutes and 1.95 seconds to earn the national prestige.

Tolbert already left her mark on the school records over the weekend. During qualifying for the final heat on Thursday, she broke a school record with a 2:01.79 in order to reach the final race.

The school record she broke? Her own from two weeks before when she ran a 2:01.98 to qualify for the national championships.

Tolbert, a sophomore from Belmont, North Carolina, ran for the Highland School of Technology in high school.

Tolbert also helped Duke win gold at the ACC Outdoor Championships in the 4x400m relay and took the individual conference title in the 400m. She actually ran faster on her relay leg (50.89 split) than her winning time in the individual event (52.00).

Tolbert is also third on Duke’s all-time 400m record book.

Duke Blue Devils women’s track and field wins second consecutive ACC Outdoor title

The Blue Devils became the first repeat ACC Outdoor Track and Field champions in the 15-team era with the Saturday night win.

For the first time in the 15-team era, there is a repeat ACC Women’s Track and Field Outdoor champion. The Duke Blue Devils won their second straight conference title on Saturday night thanks to a couple of exceptional performances.

The Duke women won gold in three individual events and two team relays across the week.

Gemma Tutton took the top prize in the women’s pole vault, the fifth Blue Devil to ever win the event, with a 4.37-meter leap on Friday.

Tutton helped Duke pull off a first in school history, too, after Simen Guttormsen won the same event in the men’s competition the day before. The Blue Devils had never won both the men’s and women’s pole vault in the same year before.

In individual competition, Skyla Wilson won the 400-meter hurdles in just 56.05 seconds. Lauren Tolbert took home the gold in the 400-meter race before helping Duke take the title in the 4x400m relay. If you want to be impressed, Tolbert’s relay leg (50.89) was more than a second faster than her winning individual performance (52.00).

The Duke women also won the 4x100m relay. Maddy Doane raced on both winning relays, and Halle Bieber joined that squad and won silver in the 200m race.

The Blue Devils now get nearly two weeks off before regionals in the NCAA postseason.