Irish Cross Country To Host 49th Annual Notre Dame Invitational

Sept. 29, 2004

Notre Dame, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s cross country teams will host the 49th Annual Notre Dame Invitational this Friday, Oct. 1. Five races will take place throughout the afternoon with the first competition beginning at 2:00 p.m. (EST). The Irish women will take to the Burke Memorial Golf Course for the women’s blue division race at 4:15, while the men run their blue division race at 5:00.

A strong field of teams on both the men’s and women’s side will be battling it out as the season nears the midway point. The women’s blue division race will feature nine teams ranked in the top-30 of the latest finishlynx.com poll, including number one Stanford, number four Notre Dame, and Michigan, who is ranked sixth. The other ranked teams are UCLA (12), Butler (20), Michigan State (22), Missouri (23), William & Mary (24), and Oklahoma (27).

On the men’s side, eight teams were ranked in the top-30 of the MONDO preseason poll, including the Irish, who enter the poll at 29th. Stanford is ranked second with BYU joining them in the top-10 as the Cougars are ninth. Air Force (11), Indiana (12), Miami (OH) (20), Butler (24), and Florida State (26) will also be among the competing teams.

The Notre Dame women will be headlined by junior Molly Huddle (Elmira, N.Y./Notre Dame) and senior Lauren King (Toronto, Ontario/Lawrence Park Coll. Inst.), both of whom will be running in their first race of the season and hope to repeat their respective first and second place finishes at the 2003 Invitational. Senior Kerry Meagher (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic) placed seventh last year as the Irish topped the 20-team field. Huddle is looking to build off an outstanding sophomore campaign as she was victorious at the Great Lakes Regional and was a third-place finisher at the BIG EAST Championship. King was 14th at the 2003 BIG EAST race and followed that up with a seventh-place showing at the Great Lakes Regional and a team-best 28th-place finish at the NCAAs. The Irish opened the 2004 season by placing third at the Valparaiso Invitational on Sept. 10 and then captured the National Catholic Invitational title on Sept. 17.

Gunning for the third victory of the season will be the Notre Dame men’s squad, who already have victories at Valparaiso and the National Catholic Invitational to their credit. Leading the group of Irish runners will be Tim Moore (Novi, Mich./Novi), who is coming off a win at the Burke course in the National Catholic Invitational two weeks ago. Moore was the top Irish finisher at the Notre Dame meet in 2003 as he placed third and his squad defeated the 23-team field. Sophomore Daniel Driscoll (Bozeman, Mont./Bozeman) won the Valparaiso meet and was part of an Irish group that swept the top six spots of the race.

The two gold division races will feature dominant teams from the NCAA Division II and Division III levels. Hillsdale and Truman State rank 12th and 15th, respectively, in the men’s Division II finishlynx.com poll, while Hillsdale appears in the women’s rankings at number 14. Calvin College and North Central College hold down the top two spots in the Division III men’s rankings with Wisconsin-Stevens Point not far behind in fourth. Wisconsin-Oshkosh (13), Augustana College (21), and Anderson (23) also rank in the top-25. The Wisconsin-Oshkosh women are the number four ranked team.

The Notre Dame Invitational is one of the oldest and largest intercollegiate cross country races in the nation. The Invitational was started by former Irish coaching great Alex Wilson in 1956. The Irish men have won the meet 15 times and an Irish individual has won three out of the last five seasons with the most recent being Luke Watson in 2001. The Notre Dame women have claimed five titles since the women’s meet started in 1987.

Results will be posted immediately following each race. To access the results please log on to www.und.com. For additional information continue to log on to www.und.com or call the Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.

2004 Notre Dame Invitational Race Schedule: Women’s Gold Division: 2:00 p.m., Men’s Gold Division: 2:45 p.m., Open Race: 3:30 p.m., Women’s Blue Division: 4:15 p.m., Men’s Blue Division: 5:00 p.m.

— ND –