February 20, 1999

Syracuse, N.Y. – Notre Dame’s women’s track and field team stands in first place while the men are in second behind Georgetown after the first day of competition in the 1999 BIG EAST Indoor Championships at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

The women finished the day with 40 points, four in front of second-place Pittsburgh’s 36 points, and seven in front of Villanova’s 33 points. On the men’s side, the Irish have 34 points, 10 behind Georgetown’s 44 points, and two in front of third-place Connecticut’s 32 points.

Highlighting an overall impressive afternoon for the women was junior Joanna Deeter as she won the 5,000-Meter Run with an NCAA provisionaly qualifying time of 16:22.64. Following Deeter in the 5,000 Meters were juniors Allison Klemmer and Nicole LaSelle, who finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively. Junior Emily Bienko finished third in the pentathlon, totalling 3,391 total points. The Irish women excelled in the pole vault competition as well, with freshman Natalie Hallet taking second with a vault of 10-0, and Bethany Wilson placing fourth with a mark of 9-6 1/4. Notre Dame also picked up some points in the distance medley relay with a fifth-place finish and a time of 11:49.57.

In the men’s division, sophomore Ryan Shay ran to a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter run and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 14:18.70. Junior Marshaun West captured second place in the long jump competition with a distance of 24-1 1/2, and his time of 21.28 in the 200-meter dash preliminaries earned him the top seed going into tomorrow’s finals. Junior Matt Thompson had a solid fourth-place finish in the 35-pound weight throw competition with a mark of 58-3 1/4, while his teammate Jay Hofner was right behind him in fifth place with a toss of 55-6 1/4. Senior Ryan Maxwell and junior Mike Griewe also picked up some points for the Irish with their sixth and seventh-place finishes in the 5,000 meter run with times of 14:49.04 and 14:55.37, respectively.