Virginia Set to Compete at Joe Piane/Notre Dame Invitational

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s and women’s cross country teams return to action Friday (Oct. 1) when the Cavaliers compete at the Joe Piane / Notre Dame Invitational. Set to take place on Notre Dame’s Burke Golf Course, the women’s 5k race starts at 10:30 a.m. and the men hold their five-mile race at 11:15 a.m. Open division races take place at noon for the women and 12:45 p.m. for the men.

This year’s Invitational will include a field of 56 teams with 40 of those teams being featured in this week’s USTFCCCA National Rankings. The Notre Dame course will be the site of the ACC Championships on Oct. 29.

Heading to Notre Dame to compete for the UVA women are Margot Appleton, Sophie Atkinson, Mia Barnett, Veronic Boire, Ellie Desmond, Taylor Jones, Gabby Karas, Helena Lindsay and Michaela Meyer. The men will be represented by Rohann Asfaw, Jackson Braddock, Kevin Carlson, Jacob Hunter, Andrew Jones, Ka’eo Kruse, Colin Peattie, Wes Porter, Johnny Rogers, Yasin Sado and Justi Wachtel.

UVA opened the season with the men’s and the women’s teams both finishing first at Richmond’s Spider Alumni Open. The Cavalier women also picked up a win at the Virginia Invitational while the UVA men placed second to Navy. First-year Mia Barnett won the women’s race at the Virginia Invitational in her UVA debut while Asfaw picked up his fifth collegiate victory for the Cavalier men at the meet.

The Notre Dame race is named for former Fighting Irish cross country and track and field coach Joe Piane, who was inducted into the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019. From 1975 until he retired in 2014, Piane’s teams won 54 league titles and he coached 189 All-American. He and UVA head coach Vin Lananna worked together multiple times with USA Track & Field.