Irish Travel to Michigan For Last Chance Meet

May 10, 2013

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to compete in Grand Valley State’s Last Chance Meet in Allendale, Mich., Friday. The contest is scheduled to run from 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. at the Laker Track and Lacrosse Stadium and will serve as the final tune-up before the NCAA East Regionals in a couple of weeks.

The women’s track team claimed its second BIG EAST outdoor title in program history last weekend at Rutgers University with a record-setting 153 points, surpassing second-place Connecticut by 50.25 points. The men’s team finished second with 107.5 points, just 12 points behind Connecticut.

Last year Notre Dame was able to advance 15 women and 14 male student-athletes to the NCAA East Preliminary Round, while returnees Michelle Brown (400m – 55.08) and Emily Morris (shot put – 14.45m) each posted event victories at the Last Chance Meet.

As it stands currently, Brown (1^st – 52.19) and Margaret Bamgbose (2^nd – 52.25) hold the top two spots in the 400m according to the Track & Field Reporting System’s 2013 NCAA Division I East Outdoor Qualifying List. Jeremy Rae leads with the highest ranking on the men’s side (4^th) in the 1,500m with a time of 3:41.45.

Brown (3^rd – 400m), Bamgbose (5^th – 400m), Jade Barber (7^th – 100mH) and Chris Giesting (9^th – 400m) each represent the Irish on the NCAA’s Division I Combined Outdoor Qualifying List and hold the top-ten times in the entire country.

The forecast for the Last Chance Meet is calling for scattered showers (70 percent) and a high of 54 degrees.

Concluding the Last Chance Meet, the qualifying members will await their invitation into the NCAA preliminaries, held in Greensboro, N.C., May 23-25.

Student Athletes on Trip (23)

Kelly Burke, Madeline Casanova, Jessie Christian, Emily Frydrych, Mary Esther Gourdin, Karen Lesiewicz, Ann Polcari, Michelle Rotondo, McKinzie Schulz, Rebecca Tracy, Aijah Urssery

Randall Babb, Jarrod Buchanon, Kevin Byrne, Brendan Dougherty, Jack Favorite, Eddy Gibbons, Peter Kristiansen, JP Malette, Dominick Padovano, Jeremy Rae, Logan Renwick, Anthony Thomas

Track & Field Reporting System’s 2013 NCAA Division I East Outdoor Qualifying List (Top-20) * As of May 10^th

Men:

400m: Chris Giesting (5^th), Patrick Feeney (14^th )

1,500m: Jeremy Rae (4^th)

10,000m: Martin Grady (8^th), Jake Kildoo (16^th)

400mH: Jarrod Buchanon (20^th)

4x400m relay: (6^th)

Long Jump: Logan Renwick (14^th)

Decathlon: Ted Glasnow (8^th)

Women:

400m: Michelle Brown (1^st), Margaret Bamgbose (2^nd)

800m: Rebecca Tracy (6^th)

1,500m: Rebecca Tracy (9^th), Danielle Aragon (15^th), Alexa Aragon (19^th)

5,000m: Molly Seidel (19^th)

100mH: Jade Barber (4^th), Nevada Sorenson (11^th)

400mH: Megan Yanik (20^th)

3,000m Steeplechase: Alexa Aragon (6^th)

4x400m relay: (7^th), (12^th)

Heptathlon: Carly Loeffel (4^th)

–ND–