Feb. 20, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to compete at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships this weekend held at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York.
Sixty Irish student-athletes have qualified for this year’s conference meet. The men’s squad enters the competition after taking second at last season’s championship, while the women look to improve on their sixth-place performance from a year ago.
For the men, freshman Kevin Schipper leads the BIG EAST in the pole vault with a mark of 5.27m, just ahead of older brother, Matt Schipper, in second at 5.22m.
Mary Saxer sits atop the women’s pole vault standings with a vault of 4.15m.
Patrick Smyth holds the second-best BIG EAST men’s 5000-meter time at 14:00.07, while Joanna Schultz is second in the women’s 400 meters at 54.32.
Smyth and Matt Schipper return to defend their 2008 titles in the 5000 meters and pole vault, respectively. The Irish will also send seven all-BIG EAST selections from a year ago to the 2009 meet.
Events begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The BIG EAST Conference will be expanding its Web site coverage and streaming production of the 2009 Indoor Track and Field Championships. For the first time, BIGEAST.tv – the league’s online streaming platform – will offer a three-camera production for the championship.
Fans can subscribe to BIGEAST.tv for one low price to catch all of the action from the comfort of their home computer.
Visit the 2009 Championship Central page at www.bigeast.org to find a live scoreboard feed and results.
Complete results will be available at www.und.com following each day of the meet.
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