March 15, 2014
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was a successful first day of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship for the Notre Dame team. Every Irish athlete who competed in a preliminary event qualified for the finals tomorrow, and the men’s and women’s distance medley relay teams both earned points with fourth and third place finishes, respectively. At the end of Friday’s events, the men are tied for 18th in a field of 36 while the women are tied for 14th in a field of 34.
First up for Notre Dame was fifth-year student Jeremy Rae, who placed fourth in the men’s mile preliminaries with a time of 4:04.37. His performance qualified him for the finals tomorrow.
Junior Jade Barber also qualified for the finals of her event, the women’s 60m hurdles with a time of 8.13. The finals will take place at 7:10 p.m. (MT) tomorrow.
Junior Chris Giesting and senior Patrick Feeney were both running in preliminaries of the men’s 400m dash for Notre Dame, and both athletes qualified for the finals. Giesting came in second in the race with a time of 45.79 and Feeney placed fifth with a time of 46.05.
The distance medley relay events were the last of the day and the first opportunity for Notre Dame to earn points. The men’s team of graduate student J.P. Malette, seniors Patrick Feeney and Nick Happe, and freshman Jacob Dumford came in fourth with a time of 9:41.90, earning five points for the Irish. The women’s team of seniors Kelly Curran, Alexa Aragon and Michelle Brown and sophomore Danielle Aragon closed out the night with a third place finish in their own DMR, earning six points for Notre Dame.
Tomorrow, Rae, Barber, Giesting and Feeney will all compete in the finals of their events, while the men’s 4×400 relay team will also take to the track.
Live results of the meet will be available on RecordTiming.com and the meet will be streamed live on ESPN3 tomorrow starting at 5:50 p.m. (MT). Results will also be posted here on UND.com.
–Lauren Chval, Media Relations Assistant
–ND–