Garces, Ross-Davie Earn All-ACC; Men 6th and Women 5th at ACC Championships

Friday, October 30

Blacksburg, Va.

M: 10:10 a.m. | W: 11:00 a.m.

Duke University

ACC Championships

Parking Information

Victoria Garces and Finlay Ross-Davie hold ACC medals

Photo by: Duke Athletics

10/30/2026 1:42:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Duke's Finlay Ross-Davie and Victoria Garces captured All-ACC honors to lead the Blue Devils in a pair of fantastic team performances at the 2026 ACC Cross Country Championships. The women finished fifth overall, while the men placed sixth.

Wake Forest won the meet for the men with 48 points, while NC State took home the crown again for the women with 65 points.

Ross-Davie turned in an outstanding race, covering the 8k course in 23:07.9 to take 15th overall. Garces followed for the women and cut 33 seconds off her previous personal best to finish third overall. She hit the tape in 19:01.5.

Ross-Davie is the first Duke men's runner to earn All-ACC honors since 2021. The Blue Devils' sixth-place showing for the men was their best finish since taking fifth in 2020, and the best in a full season since taking sixth in 2013. The fifth-place finish for the women is the highest since taking fourth in 2020, and the best in a complete year since finishing runner-up in 2012.

The Men's Race

The men's race got off to an unusual start, needing three different starts to fully get the race underway. Ross-Davie hit the 1.4k marker in 75th place. That's when he started making his move to the front of the pack, moving up 41 places to 34th at the 2.5k mark. Hitting the midway point in 14th, the Glasgow, Scotland native pushed through the final two miles for the 15th-place finish.
Junior Alden Keller was next across the linefor the Blue Devils in 26th with a personal-best time of 23:15. Hitting the 4.8k marker in 34th place at 14:26, Keller covered the final 3.2k in 8:49 for the top-30 showing.
Rendon Kuykendall, Will Purnell and Aden Bandukwala pulled each other along throughout the race, crossing the line in 32nd, 41st and 46th, respectively. Purnell and Bandukwala really pushed the pace through the third loop, moving up 32 and 20 spots in the back half of the race to round out the men's top-five finishers.
Zachary Parker (23:52.8/64th) and Arthur Graham (24:01.5/70th), Hunter Robbie (24:04.2/74th) and Braden Lofquest (24:11.6/84th) rounded out the Duke lineup. Parker and Hunter both turned in personal-best times.

The Women's Race

Garces had the best race of her career, nearly breaking the 19-minute mark. Running in eighth place at just past the halfway point, the sophomore standout moved up two more spots to sixth with 1.5k remaining. With a handful of runners bunched together in fifth through eighth, Garces made her move in the homestretch to take third. She covered the final 1,500 meters in 4:13.
Freshman Cassidy Armstrong was second for the Blue Devils in 28th with a time of 19:53.2. Like Garces, Armstrong ran strong throughout the 6k and jumped up six places in the final 1,500.
Rookie Sundara Weber hit the tape in 39th with a time of 20:08.9. The Sandwich, Illinois native ran her final 1,500 in 4:32 and moved up seven spots for the top-40 finish.
Sophomore Anna Callahan and junior Thais Rolly rounded out the scorers for the Blue Devils in 48th and 51st, respectively. Callahan covered the 6k in 20:14.9 and Rolley crossed the line in 20:17.2. Both finished with a burst, passing runners to move up six and four spots, respectively, in the final 1k.
Freshman Sophia Szolosi (20:25.3) had a good race in taking 60th overall, while junior Hattie Reynolds was 68th in 20:32.5. Nimrit Ahuja (20:37.2), Ella Johns (20:41.5) and Molly Fitzpatrick (20:45.2) completed the Duke lineup in 74th, 80th and 83rd of 158 finishers.

Up Next
A selection of Blue Devils will race next weekend, Nov. 6, at the Hokie Open. The next postseason competition will be NCAA Southeast Regional Championships Nov. 13.

#GoDuke