Sept. 12, 2006
National Catholic Championship Entry List in PDF Format
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame has announced the complete field of entrants for the 27th annual National Catholic Cross Country Championship, to be held Friday afternoon at the nine-hole Notre Dame Golf Course on the Notre Dame campus. The meet will begin with the women’s varsity race, a 5K affair, starting at 4:15 p.m. (EDT), and the men’s five-mile competition in the 5 p.m. nightcap, with free admission for both races.
The National Catholic Championship is the brainchild of current Notre Dame men’s cross country coach Joe Piane, who first debuted the meet in 1980 as a event featuring prominent Catholic institutions from throughout the United States. A women’s race was added in 1984 and both events have been run annually since then. The Notre Dame men have won 17 team titles in the first 26 years of the meet (including 15 of the past 18 championships), while the Irish women have earned 12 team crowns (all in the past 14 years). Notre Dame is the four-time defending women’s champion, with current junior Sunni Olding (Minster, Ohio/Minster) the reigning individual medalist, while Duquesne wrestled the men’s team title from Notre Dame with a slim one-point win last year, despite an individual victory from current Irish sophomore Patrick Smyth (Salt Lake City, Utah/Judge Memorial).
A total of 34 women’s and 32 men’s teams will compete in this year’s varsity races. Of those entries, 31 schools are sending both men’s and women’s varsity squads, with the participating schools split nearly evenly between Division I institutions (12) and College Division representatives (19 from Division II, Division III and NAIA). In addition, Holy Cross College (Ind.) is fielding just a varsity men’s team, while Edgewood College, University of St. Francis (Ill.) and Saint Mary’s College (Ind.) each will participate in the varsity women’s event — all four are College Division schools.
A complete printable list of the entrants for the National Catholic Championship also is available in a PDF file at the top of this release. Final results from the meet will be distributed shortly after the conclusion of the day’s races, both on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.und.com), as well as the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000). Sports information contacts from participating schools also may receive results via e-mail by contacting Notre Dame assistant SID Chris Masters at masters.5@nd.edu by noon (EDT) Friday.
— ND —
27TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CATHOLIC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
Sept. 15, 2006 • Notre Dame Golf Course (Notre Dame, Ind.)
Women’s 5K race – 4:15 p.m. (EDT) • Men’s five-mile race – 5 p.m. (EDT)
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS (all fielding both varsity men’s and women’s squads unless noted)
Assumption College
Bellarmine University
Canisius College
College of the Holy Cross (Mass.)
DePaul University
Duquesne University
Edgewood College (women only)
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Gannon University
Holy Cross College (Ind.) (men only)
John Carroll University
Loras College
Marian College
Marquette University
Mercyhurst College
Mount Mercy College
Newman University
Notre Dame College (Ohio)
Saint Joseph’s College (Ind.)
Saint Louis University
Saint Martin’s University
Saint Mary’s College (Ind.) (women only)
Saint Vincent College
Saint Xavier University
Seton Hill University
Siena College
Siena Heights University
St. Ambrose College
St. Bonaventure University
University of Dayton
University of Detroit Mercy
University of Notre Dame
University of St. Francis (women only)
Walsh University
Xavier University