MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY: Mobley leads Irish to win
Katie Hughes
Sports Writer
Dominating the field and defining the meaning of depth, the fifth-ranked Irish men won the Valparaiso Invitational Friday, sweeping the top three spots.
Finishing with a team score of 21, Notre Dame had five runners in the top eight without the help of seniors Luke Watson, who took first at Valparaiso last year, and Ryan Shay, who took the week off to rest.
Sophomore Todd Mobley won the meet with a time of 25:17.
"We more or less used this as a learning experience," Mobley said. "We're focusing on nationals and not worrying too much about early meets."
Head coach Joe Piane saw a promising field of runners in this meet. Now, the difficulty lies in choosing which seven men to run.
"This meet indicates that I'm going to have some problems this season," said Piane. "With all these good [runners], I can only run seven. We'll have five really solid guys and then seven more for two spots. But it's a good problem to have."
This Irish focus this weekend was more experience than low running times. The upperclassmen were looking to get the first-year runners indoctrinated into college running.
"We ran as a pack for the first three miles, and let the other teams take the pace," Mobley said. "We weren't that concerned with times. We were just trying to drag the freshmen along. A few freshmen struggled, which is typical for their first race. I know a few didn't run as well as they're capable of."
Sophomore Brian Kerwin finished second in 25:28 followed by senior Marc Striowski who finished third with a time of 25:29. Sophomore Mario Bird was seventh running 25:41and freshman Ryan Johnson was eighth with a time of 25:43. Junior Nathan Shay took ninth in 25:50 and senior Tom Lennon was 10th, finishing in 26:24.
Piane was very pleased with his team's performance.
"Brian Kerwin struggled last year, but this year he's like a different kid. This was Mario Bird's first race because he was injured last year," Piane said. "Ryan Johnson ran great."
Valparaiso finished second at the meet with a team score of 57. Wisconsin-Milwaukee finished with 78, Wisconsin with 102, Evansville with 160, Wisconsin-Green Bay with 168, Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne with 184, and Chicago State with 253.
All Sports Stories for Monday, September 10, 2001
