Sept. 30, 2011
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - No. 3 Stanford put together a strong effort at the Notre Dame Invitational, finishing fourth against a competitive field, despite not having a couple of its top runners. Stanford scored 202 points to trail only No. 14 BYU, No. 10 Florida State and No. 12 Princeton.
"I thought it was a solid performance," said associate cross country coach Jason Dunn. "We wanted to see these guys face some good competition so that we could evaluate our lineup as we head towards the championship season."
The Cardinal were without All-Americans Chris Derrick and Jacob Riley as well as a few others who competed at the Stanford Invitational last weekend.
Without Derrick and Riley, Brendan Gregg stepped up as Stanford's No. 1 runner, placing 13th, covering the 8,000-meter course in 24:23. Gregg and his teammates battled tough conditions with winds that were gusting up to 30 MPH and a sloppy course due to rain in the area the past few days.
Also running well for the Cardinal was Andrew Berberick who placed 21st in 24:38. J.T. Sullivan also fared well, finishing in 39th with a time of 24:51.
"I thought Brendan and Berberick were really solid today," said Dunn. "I was pleased with their races."
Completing the top five were Kevin Havel and Michael Atchoo. Havel was 59th in 25:02, while Atchoo was 70th in 25:10.
The other Stanford competitor was Tyler Stutzman who placed 103rd in 25:30.
The Cardinal will be back in action in two weeks at the Wisconsin Invitational. Both the Stanford men and women will run `A' teams in what is expected to be the most competitive regular season meet of the year.