Friday, October 3
South Bend, Ind.
9:50 AM ET
Liberty University
at
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational
(L-R): Jessica Palisca, Allie Zealand, Katie Sigerud
Runner-Up Zealand Leads Lady Flames to 5th Place at ND
10/3/2025 12:03:00 PM | Cross Country
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Liberty's Allie Zealand made a strong bid for the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational women's 5K individual title Friday morning before finishing second in a program-record 15:54.7. Her effort led the Lady Flames to fifth place in the women's team standings. Meanwhile, the Flames put four men inside the top 40 of the men's 8K at Burke Golf Course as the Liberty men's squad came in eighth.
Zealand finished just 1.6 seconds behind women's individual champion Mary Bonner Dalton of Notre Dame as she shattered the program record. Calli Doan's 16:15.1 effort at the 2022 Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational stood as the program standard prior to Friday.
The Lady Flames totaled 190 points for fifth place in the 20-team women's field. No. 10 Notre Dame held off South Carolina (29-47) to claim the team title.
In the men's 8K, Nicholas Kiprotich (31st, 23:39.6), Ethan Pedersen (36th, 23:43.6), Tristian Merchant (39th, 23:47.0) and Andrew Schultz (40th, 23:47.1) all broke 24 minutes. As a result, the Flames came in eighth of 18 teams with 243 points.
Race Reactions
Liberty will complete a two-meet Friday at 5:45 p.m., when five Lady Flames race in the Spartan Classic women's 5K. The race will take place at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, N.C.
Zealand finished just 1.6 seconds behind women's individual champion Mary Bonner Dalton of Notre Dame as she shattered the program record. Calli Doan's 16:15.1 effort at the 2022 Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational stood as the program standard prior to Friday.
The Lady Flames totaled 190 points for fifth place in the 20-team women's field. No. 10 Notre Dame held off South Carolina (29-47) to claim the team title.
In the men's 8K, Nicholas Kiprotich (31st, 23:39.6), Ethan Pedersen (36th, 23:43.6), Tristian Merchant (39th, 23:47.0) and Andrew Schultz (40th, 23:47.1) all broke 24 minutes. As a result, the Flames came in eighth of 18 teams with 243 points.
Race Reactions
- The Lady Flames posted their third lofty finish at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational in four years, following a sixth-place effort in 2022 and a fourth-place showing a year ago.
- Zealand's 15:54.7 effort ranks No. 2 in the meet's 38-year history, just ahead of Friday's No. 3 finisher (South Carolina's Salma Elbadra) and the 2024 champion (BYU's Lexy Halladay-Lowry), who both clocked 15:57.5.
- Zealand, who had clocked 16:37.2 for 16th place at this meet a year ago, broke 16:00 for the first time in her career, either in cross country or on the track.
- Zealand is still chasing her first collegiate cross country victory. But the sophomore now has six top-10 finishes to her credit, including three in as many races this season.
- Jessica Palisca was the Lady Flames' No. 2 finisher for the third meet in a row to open her senior season. She came in 31st overall in 16:52.9, becoming just the sixth Lady Flame ever to run a sub-17:00 5K in cross country. It was nearly a full minute faster than Palisca's 17:51.6 from the Joe Piane open race in 2024.
- Kate Loescher (57th, personal-best 17:12.7), Rachel Hill (60th, personal-best 17:13.3), Katrina Schlenker (61st, personal-best 17:14.7), Mackenzie Babcock (69th, personal-best 17:18.8) and Isabela Ross (86th, 17:27.2) made it seven Lady Flames under 17:30. Loescher, Hill and Babcock became the 18th, 19th and 20th Lady Flames ever to do so in cross country.
- Ryann Aycock (104th, 17:36.0) nearly joined the sub-17:30 club herself but did achieve a 5K personal best for the second consecutive race.
- The Flames' eighth-place showing was a marked improvement from their 15th-place effort at the 2024 Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
- Liberty was the top Southeast Region men's squad on the day in South Bend, topping 10th-place Charlotte.
- Pedersen, Merchant and Schultz all posted personal-best 8K times for the Flames, with Pedersen and Schultz becoming Liberty's 13th and 14th members of the sub-24:00 club all-time.
- Pedersen (94th to 36th) and Schultz (106th to 40th) both finished much higher this year than they had at the 2024 Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
- Friday marked Merchant's season debut, while freshmen Eli Julian (110th, 24:44.4), Zane Lindquist (133rd, 25:25.7) and Caden Ellis (91st in the open race, 26:39.5) all ran their first 8Ks in a Liberty uniform.
Liberty will complete a two-meet Friday at 5:45 p.m., when five Lady Flames race in the Spartan Classic women's 5K. The race will take place at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville, N.C.
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