Sept. 27, 2016
Event: Notre Dame Invitational (61st annual)
Day, Date: Friday, Sept. 30
Host: Notre Dame
Site: Notre Dame (Burke 9-hole Golf Course)
Course Map: HERE
Results: HERE
The Vanderbilt women and men travel to South Bend, Ind., this weekend to compete in the 61st annual Joe Piane Notre Dame Cross Country Invitational on Friday. The prestigious event is essentially an in-season version of the NCAA Championship, as a host of powerhouse teams will be featured. Here’s a closer look at the meet:
l Outstanding field: The Vanderbilt women — who held steady in this week’s USTFCCCA rankings at No. 24 — will be lined up this weekend against an immensely-talented field that features three of the Top 5 teams in the nation, including top-ranked Providence. Overall, the field includes seven teams who are ranked in the USTFCCA poll (No. 1 Providence, No. 2 New Mexico, No. 5 NC State, No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 24 Vanderbilt, No. 28 Utah and No. 29 Yale), along with seven additional teams who received votes in this week’s poll (Weber State, Minnesota, Eastern Michigan, Ole Miss, California, Texas and Wisconsin).
l Most recent action: Hosting their only home meet of the season, the Vanderbilt women battled through some rough weather and earned a third-place finish among a talent-rich 25-team field at the Commodore Classic at Percy Warner Park on Sept. 17. Heavy rain pelted the course on and off throughout the morning, and the start of the women’s race was delayed by almost an hour due to lightning. Sophomore Sara Tsai led the way for Vanderbilt, finishing fifth overall with a personal-record time of 17:08.6. Maddie Criscione was the second Commodore across the line, finishing 19th at 17:38.2. She was followed by Reagan Anderson in 27th at 17:45.4, Megan Huebner in 28th at 17:48.3 and Devon Grisbaum in 45th at 18:01.2. The Vanderbilt men finished 18th in the 8k race. The Commodores were paced by Jake Van Geffen, who was 69th at 26:08.8. (Full recap and results: HERE)
l Looking back to last year: Competing in the tradition-steeped Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational last fall, the Vanderbilt women had seven runners set new personal records as the Commodores earned an impressive fourth-place finish. Freshman Caroline Pietrzyk posted a personal-best time of 16:56.3 to lead the VU women and earn 17th place overall. On the men’s side, Jake Van Geffen ran to an 11th-place finish with a personal-best time of 25:08.7 for the Commodores, who took 13th place in the Men’s Gold 5-mile race.
l Scheduled to run for Vanderbilt: Running for Vanderbilt in the Women’s Blue Division (2 p.m./1 CT) will be: Reagan Anderson, Maddie Criscione, Kendall Derry, Devon Grisbaum, Megan Huebner, Courtney Kriegshauser, Lauren Moffett, Mailin Struck and Sara Tsai. In the open race (3:30 p.m./2:30 CT), Vanderbilt will have: Reagan Bustamante, Ginger Hutton and Waqqas Fazili. And in the Men’s Gold Division (5 p.m./4 CT), it will be: Dan Arthur, Caleb Casolaro, Sam DeFabrizio, Nikos Gkotsis, Andrew Irvine, Evan Suzman, Harrison Thomas, Jake Van Geffen and Jason Vincze.
l QUOTING THE COACHES:
Here’s what head coach Steve Keith and first-year assistant coach Rebekah Smeltzer had to say about this weekend’s meet.
Head coach Steve Keith:
On the long list of quality teams in the field:
“It is going to be a highly-competitive race, there is no doubt about that. It is the most competitive race, nationally, of the season so far.”
On what his team can gain from this weekend:
“This is great preparation for the postseason, and will be great experience in terms of getting ready for the championship portion of the season.”
Assistant coach Rebekah Smeltzer:
On what she wants her team to take away from the meet:
“As a team we are looking forward to taking advantage of another opportunity to learn and grow. The level of competitiveness of this field is going to be even greater compared to Commodore Classic. It will definitely be a good test on whether or not the team chooses to trust their training, engage with the competition and commit to the process from beginning to end. The last two weeks have been very encouraging, especially for some of the young ones. We are excited to see how that translates on Friday.”
On this meet serving as a preview of the postseason:
“This race is going to feature a number of top ranked teams. This is going to be the last 5k of the season and one of two highly competitive meets we will compete in prior to our Conference meet. Regardless of how things turn out it will be great exposure for our young team to get a real taste of what the postseason is going to be like and how teams at the top compete.”
