Feb. 14, 2004
Windsor, Ont. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field teams won six events; both finished third in the team competitions at the Windsor Team Challenge, hosted by the University of Windsor on Saturday February 14, 2004. Additionally, Ambrose Wooden and Vincent Ambrico qualified for the BIG EAST Championships next weekend in Syracuse, NY. The teams, which consisted mostly of sprinters, took the opportunity to tune up for the BIG EAST meet, as the Windsor track is comparable in size and shape to the one in Syracuse.
The women’s sprinters dazzled the most on Saturday, claiming the top five places in the 60-meter dash as well as the 300-meter dash. Senior Ayesha Boyd led the way in the short sprint winning in a time of 7.69 seconds. Boyd was followed by junior Tricia Floyd (second, 7.79), junior Tanya Cheatham (third, 7.81), senior Kristen Dodd (fourth, 7.85) and Junior Latasha Steele (fifth, 7.92). In the 300-meter dash Dodd got the best of her teammates, winning in 39.13 seconds. Junior Tiffany Gunn took second (39.48), Boyd was third (39.69), Floyd crossed the finish line fourth (40.80) and freshman Okechi Ogbuokiri placed fifth (40.98).
Other notable finishes for the Irish women included freshman Brianne Schmidt, who placed second in the 600 meters in 1:37.46, freshman Katie DeRusso who ran a season best 3:00.52 in the 1,000 meters, but was edged out by 0.23 seconds and placed second. Right behind DeRusso in the 1,000 was sophomore Elizabeth Webster who took third in a time of 3:01.48.
The men’s team saw four victories in the meet. Sophomore Ryan Postel led the way in the 300-meter dash, winning with a time of 34.54 seconds, just 0.17 seconds off the meet record for the event. Sophomore Alex Fortunado won the 600 meters in 1:23.51. Sophomore Vincent Ambrico was the third victor, leading a top-three sweep for the Irish in the 1,000 meters, winning with a time of 2:29.99, which also qualified him to compete in the event at the BIG EAST Championships next weekend. Junior Ryan Johnson was the fourth member of the men’s team to win on Saturday, claiming victory in the 3,000 meters in 8:42.01.
The Irish men had one other athlete qualify for the BIG EAST Championships, freshman Ambrose Wooden who placed fourth in the 60-meter dash (7.09). Wooden’s time in the preliminaries (7.02) was good for a BIG EAST qualification.