Samantha Garnet and Vasilis Kariolis were the top finishers for the Golden Griffins at the National Catholic Championships held at Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.).The women finished 9th of 35 teams, while the men placed 15th of 35 teams. Canisius was the only MAAC representative at the meet.

Garnet placed 52^nd for the women with a time of 19:26, followed closely by freshman Julie Dahlkemper. Dahlkemper finished just two seconds after in 19:28. Freshman Christine Mulvihill also finished under 20:00, placing 65^th in a time of 19:40. Maura Frauenhofer and Jess Nowak added points for the Griffs, placing 86th and 90th of 287 runners with times of 20:01 and 20:03, respectively. The ninth place finish is the best for the women at the National Catholic Championships since 1997, when the Blue and Gold came in fourth place.

Vasilis Kariolis finished first for the men. His time of 26:25 earned him 33rd place of 267 participants. In his first three races of the 2008 season, Kariolis has been the top men's runner for each competition. His time helped lead the Canisius men to a 15th place finish of 35 teams. Freshman Mark Kearney ran the 8K race in 27:35 for an 81st place finish, followed by fellow freshman Jonathan McDonald, finishing 93rd in a time of 27:43. Freshman Jake Ristevski and senior Chris Castleman rounded out the points, finishing 119th with a time of 28:11 and 143rd with a time of 28:32, respectively.

"This is a big improvement over our first two races," said coach Pete Osmond. "The teams ran well and we can expect to build on this and go to Lehigh with some confidence."

The Golden Griffins compete next at the Lehigh Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa. The race begins at 11:00 a.m.