BRONX, N.Y. – The Duke men’s cross country team won the IC4A Championships Saturday morning at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, securing its second first-place finish in school history there in what was the 100th running of the race – the oldest continually-held cross country meet in the United States.

The temperature at race time was 25 degrees, with blustery 20 mph winds.

The Duke men used a team score of 48 to down the other 14 teams in the field over the five-mile course, picking up 14 wins and zero losses on the day to improve to 96-17 at the close of the 2008 season. In the top five behind the Blue Devils were Duquesne (87), Marist (102), Cornell (157), and Princeton (183). It was Duke’s second IC4A championship after also doing in 2005, while it took second here last year.

Duke’s top seven harriers all finished in the top 25 Saturday, each earning All-East honors for their performances.

“It was a good showing for us, and it was the first time we’ve ever had seven runners get All-East,” said Director of Track & Field Norm Ogilvie. “We also end with our least number of losses in a season, which we are very proud of.”

The most All-East honors the Blue Devils had previously recorded in one season is four. Duke maintained a tight 13-second spread between its one through five runners in the win.

Behind the individual winner in Duquesne’s Josh Eddy, who covered the course in 25:11 to take first overall, Duke was paced by freshman Andrew Brodeur in sixth as he came through in 25:29. James Osborne was next, taking second for Duke and eighth overall in 25:33. Cory Nanni was the Blue Devils’ third finisher, taking ninth overall in 25:35, while captain Tradelle Ward crossed in 10th overall in a time of 25:38 as the squad placed four in the top 10 on the day.

Rounding out the scoring slate for the Blue Devils was Josh Brewer, who placed 15th in his time of 25:42. Duke’s sixth man was Ryan McDermott in 17th overall, running 25:43, followed by James Kostelnik in 24th (25:52), getting in under the top 25 to round out Duke’s All-East list. Ken Sullivan was Duke’s eighth runner as he took 26th in 25:54.

In the ECAC race this morning, the Blue Devil ‘B’ team took ninth of 11 in the competitive field, led by freshman Mary Carleton Johnston’s best race of the season as she secured a 25th-place individual finish to crack the All-East list with her 5K time of 18:45.

Behind Johnston, Patricia Loughlin was 35th overall in 19:00, followed by Anna Farias-Eisner in 40th (19:02). Esther Vermeer crossed in 50th place (19:14) and Virginia Hine in 62nd (19:26) to round out the Blue Devil scoring.

Cornell took the team title on the women’s side with a score of 67. The individual champion was Nicole Cochran of Harvard, running 18:04 to win by four seconds.

Both the men and women have now closed out the 2008 schedule as teams, though the men will await Monday’s NCAA Championships race where sophomore Bo Waggoner will represent Duke as an individual competitor. Monday’s meet will go off at 12:48 p.m. and will be televised nationally on CBS College Sports.

It will mark Waggoner’s first appearance at NCAAs and the Blue Devils’ first trip there since 2004. The top 40 finishers receive All-America honors from the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).