Oct. 19, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The 10th-ranked Notre Dame men’s cross country team finished sixth at the Pre-National NCAA meet on the Indiana University Cross Country Course in Bloomington, Ind. October 16th. The impressive finish pushed the Irish up two spots in the MONDO NCAA division I men’s cross country poll. The women were affected by the absence of top-runner and senior All-American JoAnna Deeter and finished 22nd out of 33 teams.
PRE-NATIONAL NCAA RECAP: The men’s team defeated some of the top teams in the nation at the Pre-National meet. BYU (seventh) and Northern Arizona (eighth) were ranked in the top 10 above the Irish before the meet but finished behind Notre Dame in the men’s “A” race.
Once again the men’s team was paced by junior Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.). Shay finished fourth with a time of 24:12.79, just six seconds behind Steve Fein of Oregon in first place. Sophomore Luke Watson (Stillwater, Minn.) continued his impressive second season with the Irish with a 22nd finish in a time of 24:40.90. Another sophomore, Marc Striowski (Toronto, Ont.), was the next Irish runner across the finish line in 68th place and a time of 25:20.80. Seniors Sean McManus (Hernando, Fla.) (75th) and Ryan Maxwell (Staten Island, N.Y.) (87th) were the other scoring runners for the Irish. Notre Dame’s team total of 249 finished behind Stanford (126), Colorado (140), Arizona (186), Georgetown (194) and Arizona State (248).
The women’s team had a disappointing performance without All-American JoAnna Deeter (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) who did not run due to a sprained ankle. Senior Alison Klemmer (Troy, Mich.) was the top Irish runner, finishing in 44th place with a time of 18:07.97, a minute behind first place runner Kara Wheeler of Colorado. Other scoring runners for the Irish were senior Patti Rice (Mishawaka, Ind.) (92nd), freshman Jennifer Handley (Barrie, Ont.) (124th), junior Erin Olson (Eden Prarie, Minn.) (138th), and senior Erin Luby (Inverness, Ill.) (142nd). The poor finish knocked the Irish out of the FinishLynx top 25 for the first time this season.
IRISH MOVE UP IN THE POLLS: The men made their first appearance in the top twenty after their third place finish in the Notre Dame Invitational October 1. After having not been ranked in the preseason MONDO NCAA poll, the Irish moved up from 17th to 10th following the Pre-National meet last weekend.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE: Both varsity teams have a week off before travelling to Manhattan,N.Y. for the BIG EAST Championships Friday, October 29.
MONDO NCAA Div. I
Men’s Cross Country Poll
(10/19)
Conducted by the United States
Cross Country Coaches Association
Rk School (First-Place) Pts 1. Arkansas (15) 399 2. Stanford (1) 381 3. North Carolina St. 368 4. Colorado 351 5. Wisconsin 339 6. Arizona 321 7. Georgetown 299 8. Michigan 281 9. Arizona State 26810. Notre Dame 25411. James Madison 23212. Oregon 22813. BYU 20914. Villanova 17315. Utah 16916. Northern Arizona 16717. Weber State 12618. Princeton 12019. William & Mary 11620. Portland 91
FINISHLYNX NCAA DIVISION I
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY POLL
Conducted by the Women’s
Cross Country Coaches Association
Rk Team (first place votes) Pts 1. Stanford (12) 300 2. Arkansas 288 3. BYU 276 4. Colorado 262 5. Wisconsin 254 6. North Carolina 237 7. Kansas State 226 8. Georgetown 210 9. Washington 20610. North Carolina State 19211. Arizona State 18912. William & Mary 16813. Boston University 15614. UCLA 14115. Baylor 13216. Texas 11617. Minnesota 10918. Michigan State 9319. Wake Forest 7920. Northern Arizona 62
SCHEDULE
SEPTEMBER
11 Valparaiso Invitational M 1st (Valparaiso, IN) W 2nd17 National Catholic Invitational M 1st W 1st
OCTOBER
1 Notre Dame Invitational M 3rd W 1st
16 Pre-National Championships (Bloomington, IN) M 6th W 22nd
29 BIG EAST Championship (Bronx, NY) 10:00 a.m.
NOVEMBER
13 NCAA Great Lakes Region (Terre Haute, IN) 10:30 a.m.
22 NCAA Championships 10:30 a.m. (Bloomington, IN)
All times local to site.
Home meets run at Burke Golf Course.