Oct. 19, 2013
MADISON, Wis. — Facing a combined 37 nationally-ranked teams, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 14th and 13th, respectively, at the Wisconsin adidas Cross Country Invitational today in Madison, Wis.
Kelly Curran continued her strong senior campaign with the Irish with a 16th-place finish. She finished the six-kilometer event with a time of 20:07, just 36 seconds behind the first place finisher.
Despite the fact that several of the Irish women have been battling sickness over the past week, head women’s coach Tim Connelly says today was a strong day for the Irish.
“I thought we competed a lot better than we did two weeks ago,” said women’s head coach Tim Connelly. “We have a couple kids that have been fighting sickness so they struggled a bit. But we got a great race out of Kelly, and for Hannah Eckstein, that was her first race this year and she did great. All in all, it was a good race for us.”
On the men’s side, graduate student Jeremy Rae stood out once again when he finished 45th of 288 runners. His time in the eight-kilometer event was 23:58. He was closely followed by senior Martin Grady, who finished seven seconds later with a time of 24:05 and achieved a 57th-place finish.
Head men’s coach Joe Piane agrees with Connelly that the team competed better than they did at the Notre Dame Invitational two weeks ago and adds that today positioned them well for the NCAA Championships.
“We beat some people that we needed to beat to get at-large points for if we’re not an automatic qualifier for the NCAAs,” Piane explained. “We helped ourselves today–it was a good day. And the kids can still run a lot better.”
This meet concludes the regular season for the Irish. They have two weeks before they travel to Kernersville, N.C. for the ACC Championships.
Women’s Team Standings (37 Teams)
13. Notre Dame – 399 Points
Women’s Individual Standings (288 Runners)
16. Kelly Curran – 20:07
80. Hannah Eckstein – 20:57
87. Gabby Gonzales – 21:01
90. Alexa Aragon – 21:02
126. Emily Frydrych – 21:16
193. Sydni Meunier – 21:51
T216. Danielle Aragon – 22:05
T216. McKinzie Schulz
Men’s Team Standings (35 Teams)
14. Notre Dame – 419 Points
Men’s Individual Standings (288 Runners)
45. Jeremy Rae – 23:58
57. Martin Grady – 24:05
85. Michael Clevenger – 24:15
88. J.P. Malette – 24:16
144. Jake Kildoo – 24:36
176. Patrick Lesiewicz – 24:49
T203. Walter Schafer – 25:05
–Lauren Chval, Media Relations Assistant
–ND–