CEDARVILLE, Ohio -- Notre Dame's men's and women's teams placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the American Mideast Conference Championships on Saturday. (
Men's Results |
Women's}
In the men's 8K race, Notre Dame placed sixth among 10 teams on the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course on the campus of Cedarville University. #Nick Glavac# paced the Falcons with a 20th-place finish earned in 27:04. #Ross Lenehan# (40th, 28:15) and #Randy Street# (45th, 28:36) also earned Top-50 finishes in what was a 101-man field.
NDC's sixth-place finish ties a program-best at the AMC meet; the Falcon men placed sixth at the championship event last year as well. Glavac's 20th-place finish sets a new NDC mark at the AMC Championships.
In the women's competition, a 5K race, the Falcons' placed seventh in a field of 11 teams. #Kristin Karn# placed 28th in the race, finishing in 20:20. Notre Dame had two other Top-50 finishers in the field of 121 runners - #Mary Volk# (45th, 21:24) and #Fran Melzer# (49th, 21:41).
NDC's seventh-place finish as a team tied their best effort in the history of the team competing in the AMC Championships; the 2006 team also placed seventh at the meet, albeit in a larger field (14 teams).
Malone dominated the event, sweeping both the men's and women's competitions. On the men's side, Malone's Aaron Melhorn placed first, blazing the Cedarville course in 25:17. Malone finished with 19 points, way in front of second-place Shawnee State (55 points). The host Yellow Jackets finished third (71). The victory for the Malone Pioneers marks their 17th straight conference championship; the defending national champion Pioneers have won the AMC Championships every year since 1993.
In the women's 5K, Cedarville's Katie Gillespie won the event, with a final time of 18:09, but it wasn't enough to vault the Lady Jackets to a fifth straight AMC title. (Cedarville had won each of the last four AMC championships.) Malone narrowly defeated CU, 32 points to 44. The Pioneers had seven runners finish in the Top-11.
With no runners qualifying for the NAIA National Championships, the conference's championship meet in Cedarville closed out the Falcons' 2009 season.
"I'm proud of the way the team has raced all year long,” said Assistant Coach #Kyle Komer#. “Saturday was the race we had been training for all season long. I thought it displayed our hard work and dedication.”
