April 2, 2005
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Notre Dame athletes won eight events (six running events and two field events) to highlight action for the Irish on Saturday afternoon at the Mike Poehlein Invitational Track & Field Meet at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Notre Dame men’s team produced five victories, winning four individual titles (110 high hurdles, 800 meters, pole vault and javelin) plus a victory in the 4×100-meter relay. The Irish women’s team won three events, including two individual competitions (1,500 meters and 5,000 meters) and the 4×100-meter relay.
Also, the Irish produced 15 individual performances and two relay performances that exceed the qualifying standards for competition in the upcoming BIG EAST Conference Championships to be held in May.
The Irish women’s distance corps led the way as senior Kerry Meagher (Allentown, Pa.) won the 1,500 in a time of four minutes, 38.24 seconds to lead an Irish sweep of the top three places in the event. Meagher’s time qualifies her for the upcoming BIG EAST Championships to be held in May. She edged teammates Stephanie Madia (4:44.50) and Elizabeth Webster (4:45.51) to lead the 1-2-3 finishes by Notre Dame athletes. The Irish took six of the top nine spots overall in the 1,500 as Brianne Schmidt (7th, 4:56.26), Katie DeRusso (8th, 4:57.47) and Jacqueline Carter (9th, 4:58.60) joined them.
Senior Lauren King (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) won the women’s 5,000 for the Irish in a time of 17:03.93 as she easily outpaced a field of 23 runners to win the event by an 18-second margin over her closest competitor. The performance qualified King for the BIG EAST meet.
The men’s team was led by another strong performance by senior hurdler/sprinter Selim Nurudeen (Friendswood, Texas), who dominated the field in the 110-meter high hurdles with an impressive performance. Nurudeen broke the tape in 13.96 seconds to win the race by a solid .33 of a second ahead of the field. While not his fastest time of the outdoor season to date (he ran 13.92 last week to win at Baylor), Nurudeen’s consistency this early in the season appears to be a good sign that the veteran is ready for a big outdoor season.
In the men’s 800 meters, freshman Adam Currie (Verdun, Quebec, Canada) paced the field to win in a time of 1:54.22. That performance, Currie’s first of the 2005 outdoor season, was just off the BIG EAST qualifying standard of 1:53.64. Senior Eric Morrison (Ancaster, Ontario, Canada) was third for the Irish in 1:54.84 while freshman Brett Adams (Davenport, Iowa) was fifth in 1:58.15.
The Irish picked up two wins in field events Saturday. Junior Derek Goguen (Plainville, Mass.) won the javelin with a toss of 55.06 meters (180 feet, 8 inches) and sophomore David Viken (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) won the pole vault with a clearance of 4.75 meters (15 feet, 7 inches). Both performances met the BIG EAST Championships qualifying standard. The field events, in particular, were severely affected by the windy conditions on Saturday as the athletes braved chilly temperatures and steady winds in the neighborhood of 30 miles per hour.
Notre Dame swept the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relay events Saturday. The men’s quartet of Selim Nurudeen, Zach Labrecque, Chris Jacques and Tommie Lee won the men’s relay in a time of 42.79 seconds. The women’s foursome of Domenique Manning, Maryann Erigha, Brienne Davis and Okechi Ogbuokiri won in a time of 46.59 seconds.
Other athletes meeting qualifying for the BIG EAST meet were: Brienne Davis (women’s 100 meters), Domenique Manning (women’s 100 hurdles), Stacey Cowan (women’s high jump), Emily Loomis (women’s high jump), Cassie Gullickson (women’s high jump), Christopher Jacques (men’s 100), Tommie Lee (men’s 100), Geoffrey Bennett (men’s 110 hurdles), Chip Roberts (men’s hammer throw), Kyle Annen (men’s hammer), Garet Koxlein (men’s hammer) and Kevin Moffett (men’s hammer).
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