The Fighting Irish Overnight CC Trip Participants
Beth H Reilly H Kaitlin Y Annie H
Faith H Anna H Sarah K
Emma S Taylor K Gabrielle M Julia D
Fiona Y Gretchen W Sarah H
Amy W Gretchen R Katie H
Jordan C Allie K Abby W
As of Sept 11, these are the runners going to Notre Dame
Beth H Reilly H Kaitlin Y Annie H
Faith H Anna H Sarah K
Emma S Taylor K Gabrielle M Julia D
Fiona Y Gretchen W Sarah H
Amy W Gretchen R Katie H
Jordan C Allie K Abby W
As of Sept 11, these are the runners going to Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish Overnight CC Trip
On Sept 16 and 17, MND CC is planing an overnight trip. On the 16th, we will leave school early (maybe before school starts) and travel to the University of Notre Dame to watch a college cross country meet, the National Catholic Invitational. We will stay overnight and then compete, ourselves, in one of the largest high school cross country races in Indiana, the New Prairie Invitational.
The purpose of the trip is to help introduce everyone (runners and parents) to college cross country at different levels of competitiveness. I have told the team on several occasions that, if running in college is a goal, regardless of your ability, there is a team out there that would be happy to have you run for it. The National Catholic Invitational will prove my point.
Last year, 37 Catholic colleges and universities competed at the meet. The level of competition ranged from teams that were some of the best in the country, like Notre Dame, Xavier, and Marquette (occasionally, Villanova, Georgetown, and Providence compete at this meet) to schools that were good but not great, like DePaul, Holy Cross, Saint Louis, and Loyola of Chicago. Notre Dame’s 5th runner ran 17:50 for 5k. Annie Heffernan, former St. Ursula runner, was 3rd in the meet and ran 17:34. I said Notre Dame were good.
There were also 25 small Catholic colleges competing. Most of these small schools are completely unknown to you, including St Francis where 2016 MND graduate Moira Feibig will be running. But those schools also have a range of competitiveness. For example, Bellarmine won the small college division of the meet and its #5 runner finished in 19:01. On the other end of the competitive spectrum, our current MND CC team would beat nearby Mount St. Joseph University (on the West Side). And Lourdes’ (Toledo) #5 runner finished in 30:16.
So, it does not matter if you can run 19:00 or 29:00, if you want to run in college, there are schools out there that would love to have you compete for them.
By the way, just because a school is big does not mean that it is better, academically or athletically, than a small school. There are a lot of small but excellent schools out there. The challenge is to find them. The National Catholic Invitational will introduce you to several of those schools, but there are hundreds of others, Catholic or otherwise.
Now the bad news: Notre Dame is hosting a football game the same weekend as our trip. Most of the hotels are booked. So we cannot take the entire team. I expect that I will take a Varsity team (7 runners) and a JV team (10 runners), plus 2 managers. Our Open team (non-Varsity or JV runners) will stay in Cincinnati and run at the Milford Invitational that weekend.
At this date, before our first meet, I do not want to pick the Varsity or JV teams for a meet about 1 month away. However, I cannot wait until September 15th to name the teams because hotels have to be reserved. So, I will work with Mrs Sander, our Team Mom, to determine how best to give me the most time to set the team because that means you have the most time to earn a spot on the team.
If you are not selected to go on this year’s trip, please keep in mind that I would like to schedule this trip every year. Notre Dame has hosted this meet for 37 years. I think we can count on them hosting it for a few more. So, there will be ample opportunity for you to earn your way onto the JV or Varsity team in the future.
Coach Johnson
On Sept 16 and 17, MND CC is planing an overnight trip. On the 16th, we will leave school early (maybe before school starts) and travel to the University of Notre Dame to watch a college cross country meet, the National Catholic Invitational. We will stay overnight and then compete, ourselves, in one of the largest high school cross country races in Indiana, the New Prairie Invitational.
The purpose of the trip is to help introduce everyone (runners and parents) to college cross country at different levels of competitiveness. I have told the team on several occasions that, if running in college is a goal, regardless of your ability, there is a team out there that would be happy to have you run for it. The National Catholic Invitational will prove my point.
Last year, 37 Catholic colleges and universities competed at the meet. The level of competition ranged from teams that were some of the best in the country, like Notre Dame, Xavier, and Marquette (occasionally, Villanova, Georgetown, and Providence compete at this meet) to schools that were good but not great, like DePaul, Holy Cross, Saint Louis, and Loyola of Chicago. Notre Dame’s 5th runner ran 17:50 for 5k. Annie Heffernan, former St. Ursula runner, was 3rd in the meet and ran 17:34. I said Notre Dame were good.
There were also 25 small Catholic colleges competing. Most of these small schools are completely unknown to you, including St Francis where 2016 MND graduate Moira Feibig will be running. But those schools also have a range of competitiveness. For example, Bellarmine won the small college division of the meet and its #5 runner finished in 19:01. On the other end of the competitive spectrum, our current MND CC team would beat nearby Mount St. Joseph University (on the West Side). And Lourdes’ (Toledo) #5 runner finished in 30:16.
So, it does not matter if you can run 19:00 or 29:00, if you want to run in college, there are schools out there that would love to have you compete for them.
By the way, just because a school is big does not mean that it is better, academically or athletically, than a small school. There are a lot of small but excellent schools out there. The challenge is to find them. The National Catholic Invitational will introduce you to several of those schools, but there are hundreds of others, Catholic or otherwise.
Now the bad news: Notre Dame is hosting a football game the same weekend as our trip. Most of the hotels are booked. So we cannot take the entire team. I expect that I will take a Varsity team (7 runners) and a JV team (10 runners), plus 2 managers. Our Open team (non-Varsity or JV runners) will stay in Cincinnati and run at the Milford Invitational that weekend.
At this date, before our first meet, I do not want to pick the Varsity or JV teams for a meet about 1 month away. However, I cannot wait until September 15th to name the teams because hotels have to be reserved. So, I will work with Mrs Sander, our Team Mom, to determine how best to give me the most time to set the team because that means you have the most time to earn a spot on the team.
If you are not selected to go on this year’s trip, please keep in mind that I would like to schedule this trip every year. Notre Dame has hosted this meet for 37 years. I think we can count on them hosting it for a few more. So, there will be ample opportunity for you to earn your way onto the JV or Varsity team in the future.
Coach Johnson