Oct. 29, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s cross country teams will compete at the BIG EAST Conference Championships on Saturday at the Jamesville Beach Park in Jamesville, N.Y. The women’s race begins at 10:30 a.m. (ET), followed by the men’s race at 11:15 a.m.
Syracuse University serves as host for the conference meet that features several USTFCCA top-ranked teams. On the men’s side, the Irish enter ranked 23rd and are set to line-up against No. 21-ranked Georgetown, No. 28 Louisville and No. 29 Villanova. The women also face a tough field, including No. 1-ranked Villanova, No. 5 Georgetown and No. 8 Syracuse.
Traveling to Syracuse, N.Y. for the eight-kilometer race will be seniors Mat Abernethy (College Park, Md./Georgetown Prep.), Ryan Gamboa (Upland, Calif./Upland) and Dan Jackson (Ann Arbor, Mich./Dexter), along with juniors Jordan Carlson (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount), Joseph Miller (Bowling Green, Ohio/St. John’s Jesuit), Kelly Lynch (Spokane, Wash./Mead), Jeremy Rae (Fort Erie, Ont./Lakeshore Catholic) and Johnathan Shawel (Placentia, Calif./Troy). Rounding out the travel roster is freshman Martin Grady (Burr Ridge, Ill./Fenwick).
“It will be a fantastic meet,” said head coach Joe Piane. “There are several top-ranked teams in the BIG EAST and really six teams that will be contenders in the race.”
Set to travel to Syracuse, N.Y. for the six-kilometer women’s race are seniors Theresa Cattuna (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill East) and Erica Watson (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville), juniors Molly Hirt (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington North), Rachel Velarde (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado) Susanna Sullivan (Falls Church, Va./George Mason) and sophomore Rebecca Tracy (Barrington, Ill./Barrington). Freshmen Meg Ryan (Fairfield, Ct./Fairfield Warde) and Alexa Aragon (Billings, Mont./Billings Senior) will complete the travel roster.
“Our biggest goal is to improve,” said head coach Tim Connelly. “We would like not only to improve from last season’s race, but continue to get better everyday of this season too.”
The men’s and women’s teams both finished sixth at the 2009 BIG EAST Conference Championships at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wis.
Complete results and a recap of the 2010 BIG EAST Conference Championships will be available following the race on Saturday on und.com.
— ND —