Irish Invitational & Joe Piane
On Friday, October 4th, 2024, 8 of NDRC’s finest competed at Notre Dame’s highly selective Joe Piane Invitational. On the women’s side, Meagan McKenna did an absolutely fantastic job, running a 5k time of 18:56 and placing 69th in the Open race.
The men put together what is likely the greatest team performance in ND run club history (so far). First for our team was Pieter Heesters in 24:18 (!!!) for 20th place in the open race. Following close behind were Ryan Fryer in 25:58 for 74th, Owen Donaher in 26:05 for 79th, Ryan Illikman in 26:45 for 100th, Zach Wrobel in 26:54 for 106th (somebody test this guy for PEDs), Owen Augustine in 27:23 for 114th, and Carlos Jison in 27:31 for 118th. The men were not officially scored, but they ran competitively alongside many big-name D1 teams. Watch out Mrun.
Pictured below is some exclusive post-race footage. We may never know what was said here, but we understand the sentiment. Now taking applications for the race coordinator position.
The very next day, the team competed in the 2nd Annual Irish Invitational, which was masterfully planned and executed by our home meet coordinator, Zach Wrobel.
The women’s race was a 6k, and the Irish scored 2nd of 3 teams. Elizabeth Schmidt took home the dub in a time of 23:53. Sarah Mirkin placed 4th with a time of 25:27, Emily Arenas placed 5th with a time of 25:31, Audrey Filonczuk placed 9th with a time of 26:20, Elena Rossen placed 12th with a time of 27:30 (after winning the Domer Run 10k a few hours earlier), Lucy Noris placed 19th with a time of 28:21, and Katie Burke placed 20th with a time of 28:25. Ryan Fryer drove the lead cart and did a pretty good job.
Next up was the men’s ~8k. Due to some unforeseeable events (suspects include a disc-golfer, his wife, and his wife’s boyfriend), the men’s course may have been cut short. Nevertheless, it was an incredible day for racing. Ryan Fryer, Zach Wrobel, and Carlos Jison boldly decided to compete for the second day in a row. Ryan Soenen, Hamilton Roebken, Will Birmingham, Carter Dauenhauer, Jonathan Ruiz Altamir, Winston Fairchild, Tommy Breeze, Jonah Blay, Julian Stedman, Andrew Jitendran, Maximilian Amend, Luke Brennan, Kevin Taylor, and Jonathan Karr also participated. The men placed 2nd out of 3 teams, as well.
Looking ahead, the team plans to race at Regionals on October 19th, 2024.
Go Irish, and stay frosty.
Post by: Winston Fairchild
Photos by: Jonathan Karr
© 2024 Notre Dame Running Club (runclub@nd.edu)