Sept. 14, 2012
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s cross country teams captured team and individual titles Friday afternoon at the 33rd Annual National Catholic Championship held at the University’s Burke Golf Course.
Just inside the three mile mark in the women’s 5K, senior Rebecca Tracy paced the Irish women as she took first-place out running Duquesne University’s Amber Valimont over the final 400 meters. Tracy finished the 5K race in a time of 17:11.8 to Valimont’s time of 17:12.7.
Senior Jeremy Rae led the men’s team to its first win of the season, making his move just inside the three kilometer mark to edge out Franciscan University’s Bill Jones. Having a clear shot at the finish over the final 400 meters, Rae finished with a 24:16.0 easily claiming the top overall finisher spot.
In 33 years of the event, this marked the 23rd championship for the Irish men’s squad. On the women’s side, junior Kelly Curran (17:22.2) was third, freshman Molly Seidel (17:22.9) fourth while sophomore Gabby Gonzales(17:26.1) was fifth to round out the top five runners on the women’s side.
The women’s team safely won the women’s championship in a field of 34 teams with a combined score of 21 points. Second-place Duquesne University finished up with 62 points and a distant Marquette University ended with a third-place finish with 127points to round out the top three squads.
Senior Jonathan Shawel (24:34.6) was third overall on the men’s side and finished fifth.
For the Irish, junior Walter Schafer (24:46.0) was seventh, sophomore Jake Kildoo (24:52.1) finished eighth and senior Jeff MacMillan (24:54.4), who was 10th rounded out the top 10 finishers.
The Irish closed out the men’s five-mile race with a total of 31 points in a field of 34 teams. Duquesne was second with 88 points followed by Aquinas College with 179 points.
Since 2003 the women’s team has won both the team championship and the individual title. This was the women’s 19th team title for this event since it started in 1984. Friday’s race marked the fourth consecutive year the men have won the championship as a team and 23rd team title.
The Irish return to action on Friday Sept. 28 for the Notre Dame Invitational at the Notre Dame Golf Course. Start time is set at 2:00 p.m. Check UND.com for all your Irish cross country updates.
Men’s 5 Mile Race – Team 1. Notre Dame 31 Points
Men’s 5 Mile Race – Individual 1. Jeremy Rae 24:16 5. Jonathan Shawel 24:34 7. Walter Schafer 24:46 8. Jake Kildoo 24:52 10. Jeff MacMillan 24:54 11. Michael Clevenger 25:54 12. Tim Ball 24:57 17. D.J. Thornton 25:14 21. Kevin Durham 25:24
Women’s 5K Race – Team 1. Notre Dame 21 Points
Women’s 5K Race – Individual 1. Rebecca Tracy 17:11 3. Kelly Curran 17:22 4. Molly Seidel 17:22 5.Gabby Gonzales 17:26 8. Jessica Rydberg 17:38 10. Hannah Eckstein 17:47 11. Meg Ryan 17:48 22. Sydni Meunier 18:19 50. Katherine Stultz18:56
Women’s JV Race- Individual 1 Emily Frydrych NOTRE DAME 18:04.7 2 Angela Ryck NOTRE DAME 18:30.2 3 McKinzie Schulz NOTRE DAME 18:57.5 4 Megan Kilbride NOTRE DAME 18:58.5 5 Abbey Murphy NOTRE DAME 18:59.3 10 Megan Heeder NOTRE DAME 19:25.4 11 Ryan Russ NOTRE DAME 19:28.1 19 Jessica BalkoNOTRE DAME 20:18.7
Men’s JV Race-Individual 1 Patrick Lesiewicz NOTRE DAME 25:51.6 2 Jason Hoard NOTRE DAME 25:58.0 3 Josh O’Brien NOTRE DAME 26:11.9 7 JACK RIELY NOTRE DAME 26:35.3