Notre Dame Men’s Cross Country Finishes No. 2 At NCAA Championships
At Monday afternoon’s NCAA Cross Country Championships held in Stillwater, Okla., Notre Dame finished as the runner-up to superpower Northern Arizona, the three-peat national champion from 2016-18 and national runner-up in 2019.
Like in golf, low score wins, and head coach Sean Carlson’s Fighting Irish totaled 87 points, behind the Lumberjacks’ 60. A distant third among the 30 qualifying teams was Oklahoma State (147), with Arkansas (181) and Stanford (194) rounding out the top five.
Headlining Notre Dame’s performance was junior Danny Kilrea, who finished the 10,000- meter distance in 30:11.5 to place 10th among the 237 individuals who completed the race. Four other Fighting Irish runners crossed the finish line numbers 20-23, respectively:
• Sophomore Dylan Jacobs — 30:25.6
• Senior Andrew Alexander — 30:26.4
• Freshman Jake Renfree — 30:26.6
• Senior Yared Nuguse — 30:26.6
One of the top individual performers in Notre Dame history in any sport, Nuguse was the ACC champion in the fall while leading the program to its second league title in three years.
Also placing for the Fighting Irish were freshmen Joshua Methner at No. 36 (30:43.5) and senior Kevin Salvano No. 228 (33:57.9). The top 40 finishers all receive the All-America designation, and the Irish had the most with six while Northern Arizona had four.
It was the highest team finish by Notre Dame since 2005, when it was No. 3 under head coach Joe Piane, who led the program to 10 top-10 placements in the 19 years from 1987-2005. In 39 years, Piane directed 26 conference titles and mentored 189 All-Americans.
Notre Dame’s lone national title in the sport came in 1957 under head coach Alex Wilson, an alumnus who won the 1932 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 800 meters and later that year won the silver medal at the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.
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