Feb. 22, 2018
By Matt Paras
CLEMSON, South Carolina – The Notre Dame track and field team opened up the 2018 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships with top-three finishes in the men’s and women’s distance medley relay.
Following day one, the Notre Dame men’s team stands in second with eight points, trailing just Virginia Tech (10). The Irish women are in fifth with six points behind Miami (14), Louisville (13), Virginia Tech (10) and Clemson (six).
Thursday’s Results
The men’s DMR squad of Jacob Dumford (2:58.51-1200m), Edward Cheatham (49.18-400m), Clay Goldman (1:51.12-800m) and Yared Nuguse (4:01.34-1600m) landed on the podium after finishing second with a time of 9:40.14. Dumford started the Irish off in the 1200m leg and had the fastest split in the race.
“The guys ran great today,” said assistant coach Sean Carlson. “If they compete like that again at NCAAs, they will be an All-American team. These men are all having fun and progressing in the right direction!”
On the women’s side Kelly Hart (3:25.01-1200m), Payton Miller (54.41-400m), Samantha Murray (2:09.42-800m) and Jessica Harris (4:33.19-1600m) earned a spot on the podium by finishing third overall with a time of 11:02.01. They shaved over a second off their time from last weekend and Harris ended up with the fastest 1600m split in the race.
“Throughout the week, we talked about racing with confidence and pride,” said associate head coach Matt Sparks. “The women on the relay certainly did that tonight.”
The heptathlon and pentathlon were the other two events to kick off the first day of the championships.
Carter Sorenson completed four of the seven events Thursday afternoon and sits in 11th overall. Rachel Rhodes completed the pentathlon and finished 12th with 3430 points. Her best finish came in the high jump when she finished tied for sixth after clearing 1.63m (5-04.25).
Up Next
Day two of the ACC Championships begin tomorrow at 10:00am with the 60m hurdles for the men’s pentathlon. The ACC Network Extra starts its coverage Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. and will run until 8:30 p.m. Fans can follow along via the link here.
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Matt Paras, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since January 2018. In his role, he coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse and cross country/track & field programs. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Paras is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Administration. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, he worked at Vanderbilt University as the sports information contact for the women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.