May 13, 2007
ATLANTA – Fifth-year senior Molly Huddle (Elmira, N.Y./Notre Dame Academy) and junior Adam Currie (Verdun, Quebec/Richelieu Valley) became the latest Notre Dame track & field standouts to qualify for the NCAA Mideast Regional, with both posting qualifying marks at Saturday’s Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta. Huddle met the regional standard in the 1,500 meters, winning this weekend’s race in a personal-best 4:17.84, also going down as the eighth-fastest time in school history. It’s her second regional qualification of the season, coupling with her 5,000-meter berth, and she also has topped the minimum for the NCAA Championships in the 10,000-meter run, an event that isn’t contested at regionals due to its length.
For the second consecutive year, Currie waited until the Georgia Tech meet on the final weekend of the regular season to qualify for the NCAA Mideast Regional, doing so in the 800 meters with a season-best time of 1:50.39. As it turned out, Currie’s time was a scant one-hundredth (0.01) of a second under the regional qualification minimum, and it gives the Irish a third runner in the event for the Mideast meet.
Notre Dame now turns its focus to that NCAA Mideast Regional, which is scheduled for May 25-26 in Columbia, Mo., at Audrey J. Walton Stadium on the University of Missouri campus. The Irish have earned 31 regional qualifying berths (19 men and 12 women), with 28 of those being individual event bids (18 men, 10 women) and three others coming in relays (1 men, 2 women). Counting those athletes running in the relays, Notre Dame could send up to 26 competitors to the NCAA Mideast Regional, led by Huddle, who is a three-time 5,000-meter regional champion (2003, 2004, 2006), and senior Thomas Chamney (Tipperary, Ireland/St. Columba’s), who won the Mideast 800-meter crown last year.
— ND —