NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Following the most prolific season in recent memory, the Notre Dame men’s cross country team swept the 2020-21 ACC Cross Country season honors announced on Wednesday.
Yared Nuguse was named the ACC Men’s Runner of the Year while head coach Sean Carlson was voted the ACC Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
The ACC season honors were determined by a vote of the league’s cross country head coaches.
Nuguse led Notre Dame to the 2020 ACC Men’s Championship last Oct. 30 in Cary, North Carolina, with his gold medal 8K time of 23:03.6, the second-fastest time by a winner at the event since 1968. That performance came after the Louisville, Kentucky, native opened the season by placing first in the Irish Classic with a winning 8K time of 24:06.92.
The ACC cross country gold medal was the first for an Irish male runner. Nuguse also became the first Notre Dame runner to earn USTFCCCA National Male Athlete of the Week honors during cross country season when he was recognized on Nov. 3. He followed up by helping Notre Dame to a second-place team finish at the NCAA Championships – the best for the program since the 1957 NCAA team title – with a 23rd-place All-America 10K finish of 30:26.6 on March 15 at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
This is not the first time Nuguse has earned a major season award from the ACC, as Nuguse was voted the 2019 ACC Men’s Outdoor Track Performer of the Year after winning the national title in the 1500 meters.
Carlson, who joined the Notre Dame cross country and track & field staff in November 2011 and just completed his second season as cross country head coach, earned ACC Men’s Coach of the Year honors after leading the Fighting Irish to their second conference title in three seasons, in addition to the second-place NCAA finish.
Along with Nuguse, Carlson oversaw five additional Irish runners who posted 2020-21 All-America (top 40) NCAA finishes – Danny Kilrea (10th), Dylan Jacobs (20th), Andrew Alexander (21st), Jake Renfree (23rd) and ACC Freshman of the Year Josh Methner (36th).
The ACC Coach of the Year Award is the second major distinction Carlson has received following the season, as Carlson was recognized by the USTFCCCA as the Great Lakes Region Men’s Coach of the Year.
