Liberty University
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational
Lady Flames Rewrite Record Books During 6th-Place Finish at Notre Dame
9/30/2022 3:06:28 PM | Cross Country
The Liberty women’s trio of Calli Doan (seventh place, school-record 16:15.1), Ava Gordon (23rd, Liberty freshman-record 16:34.7) and Kayla Werner (28th, 16:40.0) posted the three fastest 5K times in program history during Friday’s Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational women’s blue race. Their efforts helped the Lady Flames record a strong sixth-place team finish. Meanwhile, Nicholas Kiprotich (11th place, 23:33.9) led the Flames to 16th place in the men’s 5-mile blue race at the Burke Golf Course.
Doan, Gordon and Werner all ran faster than Doan’s previous Liberty cross country 5K record of 16:57.4 set at the fall 2021 ASUN meet in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 30, 2021. Gordon and Werner each bettered the Liberty freshman standard of 17:08.65 that was posted by Adelyn Ackley-Fairley at the 2019 ASUN meet in Fort Myers, Fla., on Nov. 2, 2019.
The Lady Flames finished with 188 points for sixth place in a 20-team field that featured five nationally ranked squads. Liberty defeated No. 27 Oregon State among numerous talented competitors. Up front, defending national champion No. 1 NC State defeated No. 3 New Mexico, 55-68.
Kiprotich’s 11th-place finish continued his excellent season which has already included two individual victories (Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational). The Flames came in 16th of 21 men’s teams with 411 points. The host team, No. 14 Notre Dame, came away with a 23-point win (81-104) over Tennessee.
Women’s Blue Race Team Results (20 Total Teams):
1) No. 1 NC State – 55
2) No. 3 New Mexico – 68
3) No. 10 Alabama – 70
4) No. 8 Notre Dame – 144
5) Florida State – 176
6) Liberty – 188
Men’s Blue Race Team Results (21 Total Teams):
1) No. 14 Notre Dame – 81
2) Tennessee – 104
3) No. 25 Alabama – 126
4) No. 22 Montana State – 144
5) Charlotte – 180
16) Liberty – 411
Women’s Blue Race 5K Individual Results (168 Total Finishers):
1) Katelyn Tuohy, NC State – 15:50.0
2) Mercy Chelangat, Alabama – 16:02.1
3) Hilda Olemomoi, Alabama – 16:05.0
4) Kaylee Mitchell, Oregon State – 16:09.9
5) Samantha Bush, NC State – 16:11.8
7) Calli Doan, Liberty – 16:15.1 (School Record)
23) Ava Gordon, Liberty – 16:34.7 (Liberty Freshman Record)
28) Kayla Werner, Liberty – 16:40.0
59) Anna Hostetler, Liberty – 17:09.7
74) Priscillah Kiplagat, Liberty – 17:20.1
101) Marie Hostetler, Liberty – 17:36.8
128) Katie Sigerud, Liberty – 17:54.7
148) Kristiana Young, Liberty – 18:09.8
159) Katrina Schlenker, Liberty – 18:26.4
Men’s Blue Race 5-Mile Individual Results (120 Total Finishers):
1) Victor Kiprop, Alabama – 23:16.5
2) Nickolas Scudder, Charlotte – 23:18.0
3) Eliud Kipsang, Alabama – 23:19.9
4) Yaseen Abdalla, Tennessee – 23:24.4
5) Ferghal Curtin, Florida State – 23:24.7
11) Nicholas Kiprotich, Liberty – 23:33.9
84) Jacob Hess, Liberty – 24:33.9
104) Kyle Harkabus, Liberty – 24:42.4
107) Jack Cottrell, Liberty – 24:43.2
113) Caleb Olson, Liberty – 24:45.5
141) Jeremiah Mussmon, Liberty – 25:06.7
150) Landon Dinkel, Liberty – 25:15.8
165) Stephen Carvalho, Liberty – 25:44.4
Race Reactions
- Doan, who had won her first two races of the season (Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational), has now finished inside the top 10 at eight of her last nine cross country meets. The lone exception was her 28th-place showing at the fall 2021 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, where Doan became an All-American for the first time.
- On Friday, Doan defeated three runners who had finished ahead of her at last year’s NCAA meet (Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich, New Mexico’s Gracelyn Larkin and New Mexico’s Emma Heckel). Doan also beat Alabama’s Amaris Tyynismaa, the third-place finisher at the spring 2021 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
- Gordon and Werner were the third and fourth-fastest freshman finishers in Friday’s women’s race. They also became the eighth and ninth Lady Flames ever to run faster than 17:30 for a cross country 5K. Seven of those nine are part of this year’s team, also including Calli Doan, Adelyn Ackley-Fairley, Noel Palmer, Anna Hostetler and Priscillah Kiplagat.
- Kiprotich ran 23:33.9 for five miles on Friday. The only Flames who have ever run that fast for an 8K (slightly shorter than five miles) are Sam Chelanga, Josh McDougal and Azaria Kirwa.
- Reigning ASUN Men’s Freshman of the Week Jacob Hess served as the Flames’ No. 2 runner for the second straight meet.
- Hess and Jack Cottrell, who have yet to break 25:00 for an 8K during their careers, both did so for five miles on Friday.
- The Liberty men’s squad finished just two spots behind ASUN Conference foe Eastern Kentucky in the first head-to-head meeting between the two squads this season.
- This marked the Flames’ first race at Notre Dame since the 2012 Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 28, 2012.
Up Next
Liberty will again split its runners between two different meets on Oct. 15. The top Flames and Lady Flames will head to Stillwater, Okla., to preview the 2022 NCAA national meet course at the Weis-Crockett Invitational. Another group of Liberty runners will head to Earlysville, Va., for the Panorama Farms XC 23 Invitational at the site of the 2023 NCAA national meet.
