US college inducts Mullingar runner to its Hall of Fame

A Mullingar man who ran at international level for many years and who represented Ireland at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was last week inducted into the Hall of Fame at the American University where he spent four years as a student.

Cormac Finnerty and his wife Rachel were guests of Clemson University, for the college’s 2018 Athletic Hall of Fame celebration, held as part of the annual Homecoming Weekend, which saw 10 alumni honoured for their sporting achievements.

“It was a fantastic celebration,” says Rachel, explaining that the induction ceremony took place on the Friday night at a special reception, while on the Saturday, in front of the huge attendance at an American football game between Clemson and Syracuse University, at the ‘Death Valley Stadium’ (which holds 102,000 people) the inductees were introduced to the crowds of supporters.

For Cormac, it was just the second time he had been back in the university since graduating; his previous visit was in 1997, when Clemson invited back its graduates who had competed at Olympic level.

The Mullingar-born athlete’s move to Clemson, one of the most prestigious sporting universities in the US, came in 1989, when his prowess on the running track earned him a scholarship to study there.

Between then and 1994, he made the All-American honour list on five occasions, thanks to his exploits at 3,000m and 5,000m both on the track and in cross-country competition.

More that 20 years after he left South Carolina, he still holds the university’s third-time best (7:59.89) in the 3000m indoors in Clemson history and the second-best time in the 5000m outdoors (13:48.45).

The citation makes clear that Cormac is a worthy inductee, with a long list of achievements to his credit.

Cormac was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)’s 50-year Anniversary Team for cross-country and indoor track when the teams were announced in 2002-03.

He was the 1991 ACC cross-country champion as a sophomore and runner-up as a junior.

At the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cross-country meets, he earned All-District honours as a senior and a junior.

Cormac is the only distance runner in Clemson history to be a multiple All-American in an individual event indoors and outdoors during a career. He was All-American in the 3000m indoors as a junior (8:00.96) and senior (8:04.88) and an All-American outdoors in the 5000m as a junior (14:05.09) and senior 14;08.60).

Cormac is one of two Clemson track and field athletes to be Academic All-American and on-the-field-of-competition All-American in a career.

Cormac won five ACC championships in distance events: the mile and 3000m at the 1992 Championships and the 3000m indoors at the 193 conference meet. Outdoors he won the 5000m at the conference meet as a junior and senior.

In his career, he earned All-ACC honours eight time.