Van Leeuwen Leads Purple Eagles At National Catholic Invitational

National Catholic Invitational

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Niagara men's cross country team participated in the 37^th Annual National Catholic Invitational hosted by Notre Dame on Friday.

Meet Marks

For the second straight event, Tyler van Leeuwen was the Purple Eagles' top runner. He ran the race in 27:04 for 48th place out of 86 participants.
Freshmen Matt Whitworth (27:52) and Ethan Graves (28:08) were second and third, respectively, on the team in their first-ever 5 mile race.
Sergio Cruz had a personal-best time of 28:10.5.

Coach's Corner

Our team definitely suffered from the heat, but I'm really happy with the measure of resilience they showed. The final time results aren't representative of our ability, but we managed a personal bests from returner Sergio Cruz. He is running with a lot of confidence and has been a great pace-setter for the freshmen. A nice surprise was how well some of our freshmen stood up to the challenge; Matt Whitworth and Ethan Graves really produced solid performances. We didn't anticipate having to rely on our rookies to contribute so quickly, but it turns out they're ready and are eager to do so. This has turned out to be especially important on the men's side, as we haven't been able to compete with two of our strongest returners (captains Slate & Bender) so our guys are already stepping up in a really big way and this is going to play big dividends as championship part of the season arrives. - Head coach Christine Kloiber

Up Next

Niagara will compete in the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Oct. 1.

Stay connected with the Purple Eagles through social media. Follow Niagara Athletics on Twitter @NUPurpleEagles and for cross country updates at @NiagaraXCTF. Check in with the Purple Eagles on Facebook/PurpleEagles and on Instagram @NUPurpleEagles.

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Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Ethan Graves: 5' 11"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz
: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Ethan Graves
: 5' 11"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz

Ethan Graves

Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz

Ethan Graves