Jan. 22, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field teams had a solid debut in front of the home crowd as they opened the home portion of the indoor slate on Friday evening at the Loftus Sports Center. The Irish claimed 22 first-place finishes out of the 29 events versus competition from Hillsdale College, Loyola-Chicago, Michigan State and Western Michigan along with some `unattached’ competitors in a meet that did not feature team scoring.
Senior Selim Nurudeen led the charge for the Irish men as he captured three firsts. Nurudeen and sophomore teammate Tommie Lee finished one-two in the 60-meter dash with times of 6.98 and 7.12, respectively. The duo repeated that feat in the 200-meter dash with times of 21.74 and 22.66. The senior’s third crown came in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.91.
In the men’s 800-meter run, Irish freshman Brett Adams time of 1:54.19 just topped his classmate Jake Watson’s mark of 1:54.20 for the win. Two more Notre Dame freshmen won their respective races as Robert Kueny won the 400-meter dash by crossing the finish line at 50.13 and Austin Wecther captured the 500-meter dash in 1:04.62. Sophomore standout Kurt Benninger won the one-mile in a time of 4:11.21 and he was followed by Irish junior Kaleb Van Ort, who clocked in at 4:16.77.
Four Fighting Irish male athletes took home first-place finishes in field events. Senior Chris Staron (2.01m) in the high jump, sophomore Justin Oppel (4.65m) in the pole vault, freshman Michael Schubert (14.76m) in the shot put and senior Chip Roberts (16.87m) in the weight throw were all victorious.
Sophomore Maryann Erigha and senior Tiffany Gunn were both two-time winners for the Fighting Irish women. Erigha and freshman Brienne Davis were the top-two finishers in the 60-meter dash with times of 7.47 and 7.78, respectively. They did the same in the 200-dash with times of 24.09 and 25.40. Gunn captured the 400-dash as she clocked in at 57.15 and crossed the finish line at 1:13.25 to win the 500-dash.
Junior Stephanie Madia registered a personal-best mark of 4:54.35 to win the one-mile run and sophomore Brianne Schmidt did the same in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:13.70. Notre Dame’s Stacey Cowan, a junior, turned in an NCAA provisional high jump of 1.78-meters to win that event.
Other winners for the Irish included sophomore Amy Kohlmeier in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:08.37, freshman Domenique Manning in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.72 and junior Meghan Horn with a shot put toss of 13.92-meters.
The Irish return to the Loftus Center on Saturday, January 29 for the Notre Dame Invitational. Competition gets underway at 10:00 a.m. Log onto www.und.com to follow the Fighting Irish throughout the 2005 campaign.
— ND –