NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt men’s and women’s cross country will travel to Notre Dame, Indiana, to compete in Notre Dame’s Joe Piane Invitational Friday. This will be the Commodores’ second-to-last meet of the regular season before they head to Columbia, South Carolina, for the SEC Cross Country Championships in October.
Women’s teams competing in the Blue division of the invitational include Tulane, UC Davis, Iowa, Notre Dame, Southern Utah, Charlotte, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Montana State, NC State, Alabama, Weber State, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Central Michigan and Washington State.
The Vanderbilt’s men’s cross country team will be joined by UC Davis, Oakland, IUPUI, UW-Green Bay, High Point, Richmond, Western Illinois, Valparaiso, Michigan, Central Michigan, Otterbein, Notre Dame, Loyola Marymount, St. Thomas (MN) and Chicago in the Gold division of the meet.
Look Back at 2022
2023 will be the third-consecutive year that Vanderbilt has attended this event. In 2022, the women’s team placed 13th overall. Audrey Allman placed second among Vanderbilt student-athletes and 76th overall in the 5-kilometer race. Caroline Eck was the third Commodore to finish and 80th overall, recording a personal-best time of 17:22.8.
The Commodore men finished 13th as a team at the 2022 Joe Piane Invitational. Junior Philip Metcalf led the way for Vanderbilt, finishing first among teammates and 24th overall with a time of 25:09.7. The second Vandy student-athlete to finish was Zach Hodges, who placed 62nd overall with a time of 25:50.6.
The Last Time Out
Eck led the Vanderbilt women’s cross country team to a second-place finish at the team’s last meet, the Mountain Dew Invitational, finishing fourth overall (17:14.3). Emma Curry and Ella Lambert came in sixth and seventh place, respectively, during the 3-mile race. Julia Rosenberg (10th) and Joslin Blair (15th) were the fourth and fifth Vanderbilt student-athletes to finish.
Freshman Jack DesRoches finished first among Vanderbilt student-athletes, first among freshmen and eighth overall (24:35.4) at the 7.8-kilometer Mountain Dew Invitational. The men’s team placed sixth overall. Vanderbilt’s other scoring student-athletes included Brady Bliven (34th), Zach Hodges (47th), Andrew Pahnke (48th) and Jackson Scruggs (54th).
The women’s team will be competing in the Blue division of the 2023 Joe Piane Invitational at 9:30 a.m. CT, and the men’s team will be running in the Gold division at 12:30 p.m. CT. Several individuals will run in the Open division at 11 a.m. CT. Live results will be available online.
