ND WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY: Irish disappointed with second place
Katie Hughes
Sports Writer
Trapped by early and unexpected speed from the rest of the field and by holding back too much, the Irish women struggled to a second place finish in Friday's Valparaiso Invitational.
However, freshman Christi Arnerich finished second overall and first for the Irish with a time of 23:03.
"It was pretty nerve wracking," Arnerich said of her first college race. "I tried to go out with Muffy Schmidt, and then at the end I knew I had to go get some Western Michigan girls, so I did."
Western Michigan won with a team score of 27, while Notre Dame trailed with a score of 41.
Head coach Tim Connelly was disappointed in his team, but took much of the fault upon himself.
"To be honest, I don't think we ran well at all. We were out of it after 800 meters, and instead of being controlled, we were lacksidaisical," he said. "Part of that is my fault. I had said not to go out too hard, but I didn't mean to get out of it."
"I don't think we were in the right mindset for a meet," Arnerich said. "We were thinking of it more as a big time trial."
Intending to use Valparaiso to test the depth of the team, Notre Dame didn't run freshman Lauren King, junior Jen Handley, junior Jen Fibuch and sophomore Megan Johnson, who should be a core of top performers as the season progresses.
"The next time we run, it will be a whole different type of team," Connelly said. "We've got some very good kids up front, but we need to continue to develop our depth. But Christi [Arnerich] is a kid that's going to help us. Muffy [Schmidt] had a good race, and Emily Showman was hurt for the last two years, but she's going to help us this season."
Connelly plans to hold off on running freshman Lauren King, whose track season did not end until mid summer, until October.
"I think the best thing we can do for her long term development is to hold her out and be patient," said Connelly. "I think as a team we have a lot of work to do, but to be honest, that's the attitude we need. When you win your first race, you're usually not as good as you think you are. But when you lose, you're usually not as bad as you think you are."
Junior Muffy Schmidt finished sixth with a time of 23:05. Sophomore Emily Showman and senior Hilary Burn finished ninth and 10th, with times of 23:23 and 23:28. Sophomore Julie Schmidt was 14th with a time of 23:32, and sophomores Megan Peterson and Beth Androski finished 17th and 18th with times of 23:42 and 23:45.
Also finishing Friday for the Irish were freshman Katie Wales, who finished 26th with a time of 24:16, junior Keri McCarthy, who finished 27th with a time of 24:22, junior Susan Creary, who finished 29th with a time of 24:33, freshman Kerry Meagher, who finished 38th with a time of 25:07, and sophomore Melissa Webb, who finished 50th with a time of 25:47.
Valparaiso finished third with a team score of 83, followed by 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
