Notre Dame will try to ride its strong performances this season into this weekend's Big East championships in Louisville, Ky.
This season, the men have notched three wins and a fifth-place finish, at the difficult Pre-National meet last weekend. The fifth-place finish marked the fifth consecutive top-five finish at the Pre-Nationals meet for the Irish.
The women's team won the Crusader Invitational and the National Catholic Championships earlier this season but slipped in the Notre Dame Invitational, finishing 12th.
Junior Patrick Smyth led the Irish men at the Pre-Nationals, finishing fifth overall in 23:18. Senior Jake Watson finished 17th with a time of 23:43.
Sophomore Lindsey Ferguson led the women, finishing 37th overall.
The Irish men and women finished third in last year's Big East championships in Boston. Smyth finished in 23:32 to take third, and Watson finished ninth with a time of 23:54.
Then-junior Sunni Olding finished sixth, crossing in 21:00, and became the third three-time all-Big East runner in Notre Dame history.
