Rae, Tracy Cop BIG EAST Weekly Honors

Sept. 18, 2012

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame senior runners Jeremy Rae (Fort Erie, Ont.) and Rebecca Tracy (Barrington, III.) have each been named BIG EAST Cross Country Athlete of the Week for the week of Sept. 10-16, the league office announced on Tuesday.

Rae and Tracy led their squads to a first-place finish, in a field of 34 teams, by winning their event at the National Catholic Championship on Sept. 15 held at the Notre Dame Golf Course.

The pair of victories for the duo marks the first win for Notre Dame during the fall ’12 campaign.

Rae finished first out 276 runners in the five-mile race crossing the finish line at 24:16. He is the first Notre Dame male to win the event since Paul Springer did so in 2008 with a time of 24:54. Rae is also the 12th Irish runner to win the event since beginning in 1980.

Rae, the 2011 all-BIG EAST honoree, competed in five cross country meets last season for the Irish. He finished 12th out of 123 runners at the 8K BIG EAST Championships (23:55.4). Rae was a major contributor at the end of the 2012 season by finishing 17th out of 211 runners on the 10K course (30:41.3) at Great Lakes Regional meet and finished first on his team at the NCAA National Championships.

Tracy finished first out of 232 runners with a 5K time of 17:11. Her first-place finish marked the 10^th year in a row an Irish female runner has won the event. Tracy becomes the 12^th Irish runner to win the event since being added in 1984.

Tracy competed in six meets during the cross country season for the Irish. Tracy placed 42nd out of 138 runners at the 6K BIG EAST Championships (21:34.8) and finished 34th out of 227 runners at the 6K NCAA Great Lakes Regional (21:28.0). She also ran for the Irish at the 6K NCAA National Championships.

Rae and Tracy look to repeat their performance as they return to the Notre Dame Golf Course on Sept. 28 for the Notre Dame Invitational. The women’s gold race will start at 2:00 p.m. followed by the men’s gold race at 2:45 p.m. The JV/open race will split action as it is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. The women’s blue race will follow up at 4:15 p.m. and the day will conclude with the men’s blue race starting at 5:00 p.m.

–ND–