Okemos, MI- Clarkston, MI – Notre Dame traveled to Michigan State on Saturday for a morning road race and an afternoon time trial. Rob Piscatelli led the men’s D team with an 11th place finish. Men’s C put two in the top ten with Andrew O’Donnell in 6th and Brian Hurley crossing the line in 8th position. Freshman Josh Corcoran wasn’t far behind in 13th. Four ND riders started the 60 mile men’s A race and Joe Magro notched his second top 10 of the season, moving into 1st place in the DII individual rankings. ND rode extremely well in the 5.5 mile afternoon time trial. O’Donnell went out early and set a fast time good enough to win the C category. By the end of the day, only 5 riders of any category had surpassed his time. Both Corcoran and Hurley finished in the top 5 of C in 3rd and 5th respectively. In A, Magro led the way breaking the 13 minute barrier and taking 5th place. Matt Prygoski also finished highly in 7th with Douglas Ansel putting in his strongest effort to date to take 9th.
Sunday’s C criterium at the Waterford Hills racetrack near Ann Arbor was dominated by Notre Dame. The team of O’Donnell, Hurley, and Corcoran attacked early and often with O’Donnell winning the first checkpoint sprint of the day. Corcoran and a group of 4 other rider’s separated themselves before the second intermediate sprint and quickly established a 30 second gap over the main field. Blocking for their teammate, O’Donnell and Hurley prevented any organized chase from forming and Corcoran sprinted to the first victory of his career. Hurley made 2 Irish riders in the top ten with his 10th place. An early breakaway ran away with the Men’s A crit, but Brian Boyle led the way for ND finishing 11th. Magro was 15th while Ansel finished in 19th place.
With the regular season complete, ND heads into the Conference Championships at St. Louis leading the DII team category by a sizable margin. Magro also leads the men’s individual rankings while Jenn Perricone has locked up the individual women’s title.