Jan. 18, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s track & field teams will play host to the first of four home indoor meets this season when they welcome competitors from eight other schools for the Notre Dame Indoor Opener Friday night at the Loftus Sports Center on the Notre Dame campus. The meet will begin at 5:30 p.m. (ET) with the men’s long jump, while the first track events of the evening will get underway at 7 p.m. (ET) when the women’s 60-meter dash goes off.
Through the first two meets of the year, numerous Irish athletes already have met the qualifying standard for the BIG EAST Championship, which will be held Feb. 17-18 at the University of Akron Athletics Field House in Akron, Ohio. Most notably, five Notre Dame women have earned BIG EAST berths in multiple events. Senior Maryann Erigha (Stone Mountain, Ga./Chamblee) and junior Brienne Davis (Grand Prairie, Texas/South Grand Prairie) have qualified in both the 60 meters and 200 meters, while junior Sunni Olding (Minster, Ohio/Minster) met the conference standard in both the mile and 3,000 meters. In addition, senior Cassie Gullickson (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Brentwood (Tenn.)) has hit the mark in both the high jump and the triple jump, and sophomore Anna Weber (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) has done likewise in the shot put and weight throw. Of those five Irish female athletes, only Olding will not be competing in Friday’s Notre Dame Opener.
Two of the Notre Dame men’s track & field athletes are double BIG EAST qualifiers to this point in the young season. Senior Christopher Jacques (Old Brookville, N.Y./Chaminade) booked his spot in the conference meet with qualifying marks in the high jump and long jump, while freshman Eric Quick (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) is the first Irish rookie to get into the BIG EAST field, earning his ticket to Akron with qualifiers in the long jump and triple jump. Jacques will appear in Friday’s meet, while Quick will have an off-week.
Admission for the Notre Dame Indoor Opener, and all Irish home track & field meets, is free to the general public. Complete results will be posted at the end of the day’s events on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.und.com), as well as on the Notre Dame Sports Hotline (574-631-3000).
— ND —