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Notable Performances for Xavier at the Notre Dame Invitational
Oct. 3, 2009
Sean Earl Invitational Men's Results Sean Earl Invitational Women's Results
CINCINNATI- The men's and women's cross country teams competed at the 54th Annual Adidas Notre Dame Invitational this weekend and had some standout performances. The men finished in seventh place out of 21 teams and the women ended the day in 11th place out of a field of 20 squads.
The men had a strong finish anchored by junior tri captain Tommy Kauffmann whose time of 24:58 was the fastest time ever for Xavier at Notre Dame. Kauffmann beat his time from the National Catholic Championships (25:03) and crossed the line as the fifth runner out of 173 participants. Sophomore Keith Albrektson cracked the top 25 with a time of 25:34. Freshman standout Hank Geer was the second fastest freshman in the field with a time of 25:37 and placed 32nd overall.
The real story on the men's side was a hip injury suffered by junior tri captain Ben Nathan. Nathan refused to quit and was XU's fourth runner finishing at 26:44. Head Coach Steve Nester said of Nathan and the team, "that [injury] probably set us back a couple spots in the team standings, but our men were still pretty darn solid. The middle of our pack needs to close the gap on our strong top three runners to take the next step as a team. Once that happens, our team will move into the top third of the A-10 Conference."
Other notable finishes by the men are junior Matt Riley who finished in 26:46, junior Tyler Fry who crossed the line at 26:51, sophomore Kyle Schenkel who had a time of 27:00, junior Joe Ryan who finished in 27:13 and freshman Ben Pollock who rounded up the squad for Xavier with a time of 27:49. Coach Nester was pleased with the men saying, "We beat the only A-10 team in the field, Saint Louis." The men's record now stands at 69-7 and the team remains undefeated in the A-10 at 3-0.
On the women's side, all the runners finished the race as a team. The top finisher for XU was junior Caitlin Thomas whose time of 18:55 gave her 41st place overall out of 162 participants. Graduate student Amy Sanders and senior Danielle Meiners were not far back crossing at 19:00 and 19:02 respectively.
Coach Nester's remarks on the women were, "Today we had eleven women run between 18:55 and 20:01 which is pretty good. They continue to work extremely hard in practice and have very positive attitudes. Sooner than later four or five should break from the rest of our pack and once that happens, I am confident they can continue our streak of four straight top five finishes out of fourteen teams at the A-10 Championships. Three of our top four runners are fourth year runners so they understand what it will take."
The rest of the women finished with the following times: senior Bethany Moore with 19:17, freshman Kaitlin Price with 19:23, sophomore Caylin Howell with 19:28, junior Christina Schneider with 19:39, freshman Rachel Clark with 19:40, freshman Calesse Cardosi with 19:43, senior Catherine Phillips with 19:47 and sophomore Micayla McGinn with 20:01. The women's record stands at 55-15 and they are 3-1 in the A-10.
On Saturday, October 3rd, the JV squad went to the shores of Lake Michigan to run in the Sean Earl Invitational hosted by Loyola University of Chicago. On the men's side freshman Matt Coniglio was XU's top finisher crossing with a time of 27:58. Men that also competed for the Muskies were: Ken Schwiter, Steven Testa, Sean Comer and Ben Lawrence. Sophomore Megan Casey was the top finisher for Xavier on the women's side with a time of 20:02. Other finishers for the women were: Kristen Schulte, Alexis Thorne, Courtney Heys and Christine Naderer.
The Musketeers will be back in action on Friday, October 16th at the Mike Hodges Invitational in Portlant, Ore. Stay tuned to GOXAVIER.com for more information and results from Xavier cross country.
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