SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The Arizona State men and women's cross-country team competed in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, Oct. 2, but wouldn't return with the results they wanted.
Head coach Louie Quintana said several Sun Devils were recovering from or just coming down with cold symptoms throughout the week.
"For whatever reason, both groups struggled with being sick all week," Quintana said. "You could see that quite a few people were sick this week. I thought the women were more resilient about it. They didn't let it affect their performance."
The women -- led by freshman Samantha Ortega -- finished seventh out of 21 teams, earning 213 points. Ortega crossed the line 22nd after moving up from 35th at the one-mile mark. There were 174 women in the three-mile race.
"I thought the women really fought well," Quintana said. "We were buried off the start, we made a ton of rookie mistakes, but for us to move into seventh place was good and huge for our team. It was a good building stone for our team.
"This team is definitely a national qualifying team."
As for the men, Quintana felt very differently, as he wanted to see more out of the No. 18 Sun Devils -- who were also the second-highest ranked team in the meet.
"The men were disastrous on all fronts," he said. "We didn't have one guy run well and when that happens, as a coach you have to have some culpability. That was definitely tough to watch us navigate and not have any skills to figure out what we were doing. Especially a group as accomplished as that -- we have three guys that were All-Region on that team.
"We have a lot of work to do with the guys...and we have seven weeks to go."
Redshirt senior Ryan Herson and redshirt junior C.J. Albertson both jumped out with the front of the 169-man pack, both remaining in the top-20 through the one-mile mark. However, they would quickly lose their stamina and finish 105th and 96th respectively.
However, redshirt senior Ryan Norton was very impressive, making moves from the 169th spot halfway through the race to a 68th-place finish.
While Quintana wasn't pleased with the results, the men made it clear that they expected more from themselves as well. They'll have another chance to prove themselves next Friday, Oct. 9 at the UofA Open in Tucson.
That meet will come directly before another large, national meet in Wisconsin on Friday, Oct. 16.
Women's Results
1. New Mexico - 29
2. NC State - 74
3. Notre Dame - 143
4. Vanderbilt - 150
5. Utah - 164
6. Purdue - 201
7. Arizona State - 213
Individual
22. Samantha Ortega - 17:05.7
37. Adriana Olivas - 17:17.5
38. Jen Owen - 17:18.0
45. Cristina Juan Torres - 17:22.3
73. Chelsey Totten - 17:40.4
76. Jenna Maack - 17:42.2
92. Shaina Corbin - 17:55.9
120. Kaitlin Kaluzny - 18:13.9
126. Hannah Benoit-Bucher - 18:17.7
Men's Results
1. UTEP - 89
2. NC State - 97
18. Illinois State - 434
19. Arizona State - 473
Individual
68. Ryan Norton - 24:50.096. C.J. Albertson - 25:03.2
102. Jeff Bickert - 25:06.9
105. Ryan Herson - 25:10.5
116. Bernie Montoya - 25:18.0
129. Brandon Boys - 25:28.9
141. Ryan Normand - 25:43.2
162. Nick Dale - 26:42.0
Men's Open Race
41. John Reniewicki - 26:10.5