November 16, 1996

Notre Dame's Men's Cross Country Team Wins NCAA District IV Meet

Freshman Deeter wins the women's race

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Notre Dame's men's cross country beat three teams ranked ahead of the Irish and claimed the NCAA District IV meet at Illinois in Champaign, Ill. The win gives the Irish one of the districts three automatic berths into the NCAA cross country championships in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 25. Notre Dame finished second a year ago in the distict race before finishing tied for eighth at the NCAA championships.

The 16th-ranked Irish scored 60 points, edging No. 8 Wisconsin by three points. No. 11 Michigan was third with 83 points. Jason Rexing finished second out of the 240 runners in the race. Matt Althoff, Derek Seiling and Joe Dunlop finished eighth, ninth and 10th for Notre Dame. Michigan's John Mortimer won the men's race.

"This was our best race all year," said men's coach Joe Piane. "We are peaking at the right time of the year. We knew that if we got could beat Michigan then we would at least qualify for the NCAAs, and if we could beat Wisconsin then we would win the race, and we did both. Rexing, Seiling and Althoff ran the way they have all year but Joe Dunlop was the key for us today. He ran extremely well and Tim Engelhardt ran terrific also."

On the women's side, Notre Dame finished fifth as freshman Joanna Deeter won the women's race, edging out Stephanie Dueringer of Michigan State by four seconds to claim the district title. Wisconsin and Eastern Michigan claimed the top two spots and District IV's two automatic bid into the NCAA championships. The Irish still have an outside shot at one of the at-large bids into the field. Deeter qualifies individually for the race with her showing Saturday.

        Men's Results                Women's Results
 1.  Notre Dame    63 points        5.  Notre Dame      155 points
 2.  Jason Rexing    30:38          1.  Joanna Deeter     17:18
 8.  Matt Althoff    30:54         10.  Nicole LaSelle    17:42
 9.  Derek Seiling   30:57         31.  Heidi Reichenbach 18:19 
10.  Joe Dunlop      31:00         47.  Mieke Walsh       18:28
31.  Tim Engelhardt  31:52         66.  Janel Kiley       18:45