Notre Dame cross country, track and field overcome adversity to achieve success

The Notre Dame cross country team entered 2024 with high expectations, and despite a seemingly endless barrage of untimely injuries and illnesses on both the women’s and men’s sides, emerged from the fall season with impressive achievements.

Irish women claim first ACC cross country title, men return to top 10 at nationals

For as consistently strong as the Irish women have been since Notre Dame joined the ACC more than a decade ago, an inaugural conference title had long eluded them, with one seemingly indomitable obstacle largely responsible for that gap in the trophy case: NC State, eight-time defending champions entering 2024. But in November, the Irish put an end to that drought on the Wolfpack’s home course, emerging from a tightly contested conference championship race with their first ACC crown.

“That was a great day,” Irish director of cross country and track and field Matt Sparks said about the ACC Championship. “The conference title was something we’ve worked towards for the last 11 years since we’ve been in the ACC. So that was a special day for us.”

The Irish were led throughout the season by a pair of veterans — senior Siona Chisholm and graduate student Erin Strzelecki — who each rose to the occasion and stepped into starring roles at key moments in the season. At the conference meet, it was Chisholm’s sixth-place finish that propelled Notre Dame to a narrow victory.

“Siona and Erin Strzelecki were two [runners] that … we looked for to step up and fill some of that leadership void at the front end of the pack, and both did that in different times of the season,” Sparks said. “Siona carried the weight at the ACC Championship and kind of dragged us to the win that day.”

Three weeks later, it was Strzelecki’s time to shine, leading a severely depleted and shorthanded Irish squad to a 16th place finish at the NCAA Championship while placing 37th individually to earn All-American honors for the second consecutive year.

“To complete those accolades, [we’re] really proud of her. She had a midseason sickness at the pre-national meet where she didn’t run, she was so ill,” Sparks said of Strzelecki. “But then obviously [she] came around just at the right time for the national meet.”

Conversely to the veteran-led women, it was more of a youth movement for the Irish men, partly due to the team’s bevy of talented underclassmen and partly out of necessity, as several of Notre Dame’s established leaders were hampered by injuries.

After placing 14th nationally the previous year — the team’s second consecutive finish outside of the top 10 — the Irish had ambitions of returning to national contention and looked poised to do so for much of the year.

Notre Dame earned a major regular season victory at home in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite and followed a sixth-place ACC finish with a win at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional to carry some momentum into the national meet. They made good use of it, fighting to a 10th-place finish at nationals. Like the women, the Irish men were led by an All-American performer, as junior Izaiah Steury was up front for Notre Dame in 24th.

“Really proud of Izaiah, [he] had an amazing national meet,” Sparks said. “He was a little off at the conference meet; I believe he finished better at the national meet than he did at the conference meet … but Izaiah Steury really bought into what he was doing.”

Steury’s performance was backed up by a strong showing from Notre Dame’s young core, with three more Irish runners who will be returning to campus next fall placing inside the top 100 nationally — juniors Ethan Coleman and Daelen Ackley and freshman Drew Griffith.

“We felt like we had a really good blend of upperclassmen that had done some things on an elite level, and then a talented group of [underclassmen] that we were going to count on,” Sparks said. “We really had to lean on the underclassmen.”

O’Brien’s pentathlon three-peat leads the way for Irish track and field

As the Irish shifted their focus to track and field, it was once again time for graduate student Jadin O’Brien to shine. During the indoor season, O’Brien continued her dominance in the pentathlon, claiming a third straight NCAA title while establishing new school and ACC records in the event. Along with fellow graduate students Addison Berry and Alaina Brady, O’Brien helped Notre Dame complete a rare sweep of the podium in the pentathlon at the ACC Indoor Championships.

“That was definitely the sweet spot of the indoor season,” Sparks said about the Irish’s pentathlon conference sweep. “Jadin has won NCAA titles before. She had a great score, won the championship, and we’re extremely proud of the three-peat there. But it was really neat to see all three of them on that podium together, celebrating.”

Also crucial to the Irish women’s strong indoor track season was the performance of graduate student Madison Schmidt, who set a school record in the high jump en route to finishing as ACC runner-up and earning a berth at the NCAA meet.

“She’s been a model of consistency when it [comes] to the championship time of the year,” Sparks said about Schmidt. “She continually jumped high when it mattered most.”

On the men’s side, Notre Dame’s distance group carried their strong cross country efforts onto the track, with Ackley claiming the ACC indoor title in the mile while Coleman impressed with top-five finishes in both the 3k and 5k.

“Daelen has really matured as an athlete. He’s finally very comfortable in what his skill set is and how he needs to execute a race and that really came to fruition at the ACC Championship,” Sparks said. “And then Ethan Coleman has just been a steady rock for us since he got here. Season after season, [he] progressively gets better.”

Another standout in conference competition was freshman Luke Himes, who earned First Team All-ACC honors with a runner-up finish in the shot put.

“That’s a tough event to transition from high school to college. It’s a different-sized weight and it’s a strength-oriented event … and he was able to transition pretty seamlessly,” Sparks said about Himes’ performance in the shot put. “So that’s really exciting for the future, what Luke’s going to bring to the table.”

Now in the midst of the outdoor track and field postseason, the Irish will close out the year with the regional meet at the end of May and the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR, from June 11-14.