March 5, 2005
Notre Dame, Ind. – One Notre Dame women’s record was tied and eight meet records fell Saturday afternoon as competition concluded in the final day of the Alex Wilson Indoor Invitational at the Loftus Sports Center on the University of Notre Dame campus. The meet served well its purpose as one of several “last chance” meets for athletes to qualify for next weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships as 132 national qualifying marks were posted over the course of the two-day meet and 11 meet marks fell overall.
After records fell in three events on Friday, new meet standards were set Saturday in the women’s 60-meter dash (7.39 by Andriane Lapsley of Georgia Tech), the women’s 60-meter high hurdles (8.21 by Dana Rogers of Georgia Tech), the women’s 400 (52.67 by Ginou Etienne of Miami), the men’s 800 (1:47.51 by Nate Brannen of Michigan), the men’s mile (4:00.17 by Nate Robison of BYU), the men’s long jump (8.12 meters/26 feet, 7 3/4 inches by Aarik Wilson of Indiana), women’s triple jump (13.38/43-10 3/4 by Colleen Rambarak of Kent State), and the men’s pole vault (5.43/17-9 3/4 by Paul Gensic of the Air Force Academy).
Notre Dame produced four NCAA qualifying performances (three females, one male). The Notre Dame women’s team produced qualifying performances by sprinter Maryann Erigha, sprinter Okechi Ogbuokiri and distance runner Stephanie Madia. Erigha won the 200 meters in a time of 23.60 seconds, her fastest time this season and a mark that matched the school record set by Ayesha Boyd in 2002. Ogbuokiri was third in the 400 in 54.03, also her fastest time of the year, and Madia was third in the 3,000 meters in 9:22.50, a mark that is the fastest by an Irish runner this season.
To this point, 10 athletes (seven females and three males) plus the men’s distance medley relay for the NCAA meet. For the men, Kurt Benninger has met the automatic qualifying standard in the mile while he also has a provisional qualifying time in the 3,000 meter run. Hurdler/sprinter Selim Nurudeen has a provisional qualifying mark in the 60-meter hurdles and Tim Moore has provisionally qualified in the 5,000. For the women, Erigha has provisionally qualified in the 200, Tiffany Gunn and Ogbuokiri have provisionally qualified in the 400, Madia and Sunni Olding have provisionally qualified in the 3,000, Molly Huddle has provisionally qualified in the 5,000 and Stacey Cowan has met the provisional standard in the high jump.
The deadline for setting a qualifying standard for the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships is 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. The Irish will know how many athletes they will have competing at the championships by Monday afternoon. The NCAA indoor meet will be held Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
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