For the first time in program history, Notre Dame cross country is atop the women's sector of the ACC. Competing in Friday's ACC Championships at WakeMed Cross Country course in Cary, North Carolina, the Irish snapped NC State's eight-year streak of women's conference titles. The Notre Dame men's squad also finished strong with a sixth-place result.
En route to claiming her third consecutive All-ACC selection, senior Siona Chisholm led the Irish women in the 6k race. Her time of 19 minutes and 42.3 seconds put her 27 seconds back of individual winner Grace Hartman, a sophomore from NC State. Both fifth-place NC State and 11th-place Clemson placed two runners inside the top four, but Notre Dame's consistency beyond the top 20 made a difference.
Next to finish for the Irish, freshman Mary Bonner Dalton notched the fastest 6k time of her young career while running in her home state of North Carolina. At 20:13.8, she ended the race in 22nd. Just behind her, graduate student Erin Strzelecki took home 26th with a time of 20:17.5. Rounding out the Irish top five, sophomore Gretchen Farley and freshman Isabel Allori went 30th and 31st with respective times of 20:21.0 and 20:21.4.
The final two Notre Dame scorers, graduate student Emily Covert (20:25.7) and sophomore Arianne Olson (20:30.4), respectively walked away in 37th and 45th. With a team count of 115 points, Notre Dame cleared both Stanford and North Carolina by six points. The Cardinal, Tar Heels and fifth-place NC State Wolfpack actually had better average times than Notre Dame, but the Irish thrived on placement as the only team with all scoring runners inside the top 40.
Wake Forest claimed the men's 8k race, filling the top 20 with five runners and producing a team total of 60 points. Stanford, North Carolina, Virginia and Syracuse slotted in behind the Demon Deacons, ahead of Notre Dame's sixth-place score of 127. Like the women's team, the Irish men kept all seven scoring runners inside the overall top 45. However, they lacked what Siona Chisholm provided the women near the top of the leaderboard, getting an 18th-place finish out of their top runner. For reference, five Wake Forest runners finished ahead of Notre Dame's fastest man.
Still, the Irish concluded the race as one of just two teams (Stanford) to have every scoring runner in the top 45. Junior Ethan Coleman clinched his second consecutive All-ACC selection with an 18th-place run of 22:59.8. Fellow junior CJ Singleton and sophomore Kevin Sanchez followed behind him, claiming 24th and 26th place in 23:05.8 and 23:08.0, respectively. Juniors Daelen Ackley and Izaiah Steury occupied the final two spots in the top 30, racing to respective times of 23:09.6 and 23:10.1. The final two Notre Dame scorers, freshman Drew Griffith (23:18.0) and graduate student Robbie Cozean (23:23.2), went into the books respectively in 37th and 42nd place.
Both Irish teams now head into the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, set to run on Nov. 15 in Norton, Ohio, 35 miles south of Cleveland. The Notre Dame women's team enters the regional ranked first in the field ahead of Wisconsin and Michigan State, while the men's team sits in the second position behind Wisconsin.
The Irish women have won the NCAA Regional race in each of the last three seasons, having cleared Wisconsin by 32 points a year ago. Strzelecki put forth a strong showing in the postseason race, claiming sixth place in 20:19.9.
The men's squad, meanwhile, looks to win a regional race for the first time since 2021. Notre Dame took second in 2022 and fourth in 2023, with Butler capturing the team title a year ago. Coleman ran well in that race, taking 12th with a 10k time of 30:00.5.
