This past Friday, Notre Dame hosted the 45th National Catholic Invitational on the Burke Golf Course. Both the Irish men’s and women’s teams secured the meet title with scores of 16 and 15, respectively, and the teams handily beat second-place Loyola (Illinois), who finished in second place for both the men and women with scores of 54 and 47.
The Irish women dominated the 5K and had 11 runners in the top 15. Freshman Mary Bonner Dalton ran unattached and won the women’s overall title with a 5K time of 16:46.3. Just one second off Dalton, teammate and freshman Isabel Allori, who also ran unattached, finished in second with a time of 16:47.3. Graduate student and Fort Wayne native Erin Strzelecki finished in third with a time of 16:47.5, and right behind her was sophomore Arianne Olson, who finished in 16:55.6. With times of 17:09.3 and 17:09.9, junior Caroline Lehman and senior Siona Chisholm finished in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Similar to the women, the Irish men comfortably finished in first with 12 men finishing in the top 15 runners. The men’s 8K race title was captured by graduate student Carter Solomon, who finished with a time of 23:40.5. Following right behind him was junior Daelen Ackley who ran a time of 23:43.4. Sophomore Brody Hartley and junior Izaiah Steury ran respective times of 23:49.5 and 23:50.7 to round out the top four runners. Running unattached, freshman Drew Griffith ran a time of 23:52.8, and less than two seconds behind him was graduate student Cole Nash who finished with a time of 23:54.1.
The Irish men and women are set to run again at home on Oct. 4 for the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite.
