Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Cross Country Teams Capture National Catholic Cross Country Titles

Sept. 22, 2000

Men’s Results | Women’s Results

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Junior Luke Watson and freshman Megan Johnson captured top individual honors while the Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams ran away with the team titles, in Friday’s action at the National Catholic Cross Country Meet, held at the Burke Memorial Golf Course.

Watson toured the five-mile course in 24:56 while the Irish claimed the top three spots en route to a comfortable margin over Loyola University (Chicago), 46-103. Juniors Marc Striowski (25:19) and Patrick Conway finished behind Watson while freshmen David Alber (19th, 26:08) and Brian Kerwin (21st, 26:15) rounded out Notre Dame’s top-five finishers.

Johnson had a much closer finish in the 3.1-mile women’s race, finishing in 18:08 to edge Loyola’s Kristyne McGuinn by seven seconds (followed by two others within five seconds of McGuinn). Notre Dame-which earned a narrow 32-37 victory over runner-up Loyola-placed five runners in the top 10, including senior Chrissy Kuenster (5th, 18:23), freshman Rachel Endress (18:31), junior Hilary Burn (9th, 18:34) and sophomore Muffy Schmidt (10th, 18:35).

Other top team finishers in the men’s competition included Lewis University (third, 124), Canisius College (fourth, 124) and Siena Heights (fifth, 140), which was led by fourth-place finisher Ryan Bills (25:29) and fifth-place finisher Matt Miller (25:30).

Other top team finishers on the women’s side were Bellarmine (third, 171), Loras College (fourth, 176) and Holy Cross College (fifth, 201). In addition to McGuinn and the top Irish runners, other individuals atop the leaderboard included Detroit’s Angie Leferee (third, 18:18) and Loyola’s Alana Crisman (18:20).