The University of Dayton men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to South Bend, Ind., on Friday, Sept. 14 to compete in the 33rd annual National Catholic Cross Country Invitational hosted by the University of Notre Dame.
Thirty-four catholic schools from around the country were invited to compete in the invitational.
The women’s team finished fifth overall, lead by junior Lizzie Gleason who crossed the finish in 17:50.6 for 13th place.
Right behind her was junior Nicole Cargill in 17th place with a time of 18:07.9. In third place for the Flyers was sophomore Nicole Armstrong, who finished the race in 18:38.9. Junior Sarah Reynolds finished fourth for the Flyers with a time of 18:48.7. Behind her, freshman Olivia Albers placed 5th for the Flyers crossing the finish line in 18:49.3. Senior Marisa Slomski finished in 18:54.6, followed by freshman Mickey Ludlow’s 19:12.7 and sophomore Mary List’s 19:25.7 to round out the pack.
The University of Notre Dame won the NCCCI with 21 points. Duquesne University finished in second place with 62 points, and Marquette University took third with 127 points. Those teams were followed by Saint Louis University’s 139 points and UD’s 147 points.
“We weren’t happy with the result,” said women’s cross country head coach Sarah Haveman. “But we are a strong team, and we’ll build from this.”
The men’s cross country team finished its competition in seventh place overall. Senior Jeremy Schiele was the first Flyer to finish the race in 25:36 in 28th place. The second Flyer to cross the finish line was senior Kyle Lowry in 34th place in 25:51. Junior Eric Gruenbacher was hot on his tail and finished the race in 25:54 placing 37th. Senior Greg Roeth’s 26:20, freshman Ryan Polman’s 26:23, junior Tyler Roeth’s 26:26 and senior Nate Addessi’s 26:33 rounded out the pack.
“I felt like I ran as fast as I could that day, but I was unhappy with the results,” said Schiele. “I actually ran 20 seconds faster the year before. I’m just hoping to improve as the season goes on and run my best at A-10s and regionals.”
The Fighting Irish also won the men’s competition with 31 points. The runner-up again was Duquesne University with 88 points, followed by Aquinas University with 179 points in third place. Marquette’s 181 points, Seattle University’s 189 points and Xavier University’s 206 also placed in front of UD, which scored 222 points.
“We didn’t perform at the level necessary to be competitive,” said men’s cross country head coach Rich Davis. “But the guys stuck to the plan and proved ourselves to be a good team. 2012 will be the year we do better in A-10 than the National Catholic.”
The next race on the cross country team’s schedule is the All-Ohio Championship hosted by the Cedarville University. The starting gun fires at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29.
