Sep. 19, 2004

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The University of Dayton men's cross country finished in fourth place and the women seventh in the National Catholic Invitational at the University of Notre Dame Saturday. The top finishers for UD were the same at their previous meet. The men's team top finisher was Brian Gilchrist at 17th place and for the women's team Michelle Griffin at 26th place. Notre Dame swept both titles.

The UD men's team finished with 156 points. Notre Dame won easily with 19 points, followed by Gonzaga with 106 points and Xavier with 139 points. DePaul finished fifth (176), Loras sixth (200), Detroit-Mercy seventh (239) Saint Vincent eight (273), Holy Cross ninth (299), and St. Martin's tenth (348) to round out the top ten.

Sophmore Brian Gilchrist was the top runner for UD with a time of 25:49. Senior Brian Roberts followed him with a time of 26:14, finishing in 30th place. Following closely behind Roberts were place sophmore Eric Conteras (26:32) in 34th place, junior David Berning (26:46) in 39th place, freshman Mike Connolly (26:47) in 40th place, freshman Billy Przbyla (26:59) in 44th place, freshman Dan Sammons (27:09) in 50th place, and senior Zak Lewis (27:18) in 56th place.

The women's team finished with 243 points, behind Notre Dame (28) in first place, DePaul (87) in second, Gonzaga (164) in third, Bellarmine (168) in fourth, Xavier (199) in fifth, and St. Thomas (224) in sixth.

The top UD women's runner was senior Michelle Griffin with a time of 19:19. Though only 32 seconds behind, senior Ruth Hinde finished in 51st place with a time of 19:51. Finishing behind them were sophmore Tessa Mott (19:56) in 55th place, sophmore Kiera Gottemoeller (20:10) in 60th place, freshman Emily Deet (20:32) in 93rd place, senior Katie Dobies (20:46) in 107th place,and Dana Duckro (20:55) in 115th place.

Both teams will look to improve Saturday at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where they will participate in the Duquesne Invitational at 3:45 PM.