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GRAD TRANSFERS: Tyler Morris & Jake Winslow To Finish Eligibility At Duke Next Fall
- Ben Weisel
- Dec 24, 2022
- 3 min read
Written by Ben Weisel, additional edits and commentary by Garrett Zatlin
Tyler Morris (Colby College to Duke)
Division Three star Tyler Morris is headed from Colby College to Duke as a graduate transfer next fall. He is expected to have one full year of eligibility across all three seasons of competition.
The incoming Blue Devil is coming off of a fantastic 9th place finish at the NCAA D3 XC Championships this past fall after finishing 7th in the same race a year ago. On the track, the long distance talent owns strong personal bests of 29:36 in the 10k and 14:11 in the 5k. Morris also finished 3rd in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last spring.
Morris’ future team narrowly missed qualifying for the D1 NCAA XC Championships after a 5th place finish at the Southeast regional meet this past fall. According to TFRRS, the Blue Devils return four of their top-seven men from last year and lose Matyas Csiki-Fejer, Chris Theodore and Nick Dahl.
Theodore, in particular, will be a big scoring loss for this team. However, his future absence leaves room for another aerobic-centric standout like Morris to step into this lineup and act as a crucial varsity scorer.
Unlike most teams, Duke has some recent familiarity with incorporating talents from the Division Three level into their program. Csiki-Fejer, for instance, came over from Suffolk last year and ended up being the Blue Devils’ third scorer at the Southeast Regional XC Championships where he finished 34th. The former D3 runner was 34th at the NCAA D3 XC Championships a year ago and owns a 14:09 PR in the 5k.
If Morris can come in and slightly better Csiki-Fejer’s production, and he seemingly will, then that will go a long way in stabilizing the middle portion of Duke's lineup. It could also give the Blue Devils the potential to snag one of those final few national qualifying spots that they barely missed this past fall.
While it is hard to predict where Morris will stack up at the Division One level, we feel confident that he can become an "All-Region" performer in the Southeast region while potentially evolving into a highly underrated 10k talent in the ACC.
Jake Winslow (Dartmouth to Duke)
Jake Winslow will finish his eligibility at Duke as a graduate transfer next fall. He is expected to have one full year of eligibility across all three seasons of competition.
The soon-to-be former Dartmouth runner will join a quietly deep middle distance group in Durham, North Carolina for the 2023-2024 academic calendar.
While Nick Dahl will be graduating at the end of this spring, Duke will still have plenty of sub-1:52 runners over 800 meters as well as a handful sub-3:50 men over 1500 meters. And on paper, this current Ivy League runner has the credentials to be a perfect fit for the Blue Devils.
Winslow has run 1:51 in the 800 meters, 4:01 in the mile and 8:02 in the 3000 meters. While he did not have his best cross country season this past fall, he has finished 30th at the Ivy League XC Championships in years past.
If Winslow can provide anything on the grass, then Duke will surely be thrilled, but the track is where he should shine.
The Dartmouth distance talent could prove to be a strong DMR piece for the Blue Devils who ran a converted 9:30 mark in that relay last winter. With Dahl no longer there to anchor the relay, Winslow could end up being the perfect replacement to keep this team in the national conversation.
It should also be noted that Dahl was a former standout miler in the Ivy League prior to joining the Duke Blue Devils. While with Yale, Dahl posted a 4:01 PR in the mile and his resume was fairly similar to that on Winslow's.
Nowadays, he's a 3:55 miler who has also run 1:48 in the 800 meters.
And if Dahl is any indication of the potential progress that we could see out of Winslow throughout next year, then Duke could have another nationally competitive mile / 1500 meter runner a year and a half from now.
But at the very least, Winslow should give Duke another possible scoring option at ACC Championships during the winter and spring seasons. And in a conference that is becoming increasingly more competitive, the Blue Devils will take every point that they can get.
