Kevin Veselik proved that "Impossible is Nothing" by kicking off his Adidas.
The senior runner finished first among Notre Dame's squad and fifth overall at the Crusader Open in Valparaiso, Ind., Friday, even though another runner kicked off his shoe halfway through the race.
Veselik was in first place before another runner clipped his shoe off with three kilometers to go in the 6K race. A little after that, Veselik said, yet another competitor hit his bare foot with the spikes in his shoe.
"It hurt when it happened," Veselik said, "but I didn't really feel it after that."
Veselik finished with a time of 19:48. His Herculean effort helped propel the Irish to second place out of five in the invitational.
However, Veselik preferred to talk of the team's performance over his own.
"We have a lot to improve upon," he said. "We'll be much better."
He said the team is focusing on its major goals of the Big East and NCAA tournaments, and using the season's races as a stepping-stone to those two.
The women's team came in first of six teams at the Crusader Open. Sophomore Marissa Treece finished first overall with a time of 17:42 on the 4K course.
"It's how we wanted to start the season," senior Becca Bauman, who came in seventh with a time of 18:35, said. "Our goal was to have seven in the top 10, and we ended up with 8 in the top 11."
Bauman said the team's main accomplishment was running well together, which is evident in their close finish.
"We have room to improve, and the competition is going to get tougher," senior Emily Wauford, who finished eighth with a time of 18:39, said.
The women did not run any freshmen in the race because head coach Tim Callahan wanted to give them more time for conditioning.
The next meet for the men's and women's teams is the National Catholic Championships, which takes place Sept. 19 at Notre Dame.
