March 3, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – Irish junior Liz Grow and the women’s mile relay team won their respective races and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships at the Alex Wilson Invitational today at the Loftus Sports Complex. Today’s meet was the last chance for runners to qualify for the NCAA Championships March 9-10 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Grow won the 200 meters in a time of 24.00, outdistancing Jada Phelps (24.64) and Patricia Soman (25.01), both of Ball State. The time was a personal best for Grow (her previous career best was 24.21) and was just under the NCAA provisional mark of 24.05. Grow will find out Sunday evening at 7 p.m. EST if she will receive an invitation to compete at the NCAA meet.
The mile relay team will wait with Grow after provisionally qualifying for the NCAA meet with a season-best time of 3:40.21. The Irish outran Ball State, who was second in 3:41.19. Kent State was third in 3:52.24. Notre Dame was well under the NCAA mark of 3:43.05.
Other Irish winners today were Andrew Cooper in the high jump and sophomore Tameisha King in the 60-meter hurdles. Cooper claimed the high jump title clearing 2.05 meters (6-8 3/4). The senior outjumped Rich Warren, competing unattached, who was second at 2.00 meters (6-6 3/4).
King, who provisionally qualified for the NCAA long jump competition Friday night, won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.58. King just edged Ayesha George of Ball State (8.64) and teammates Julie Gulyas (9.37) and Angela Butcher (9.92).
The meet featured some of the nation’s best runners. On Friday, five teams (Stanford, Kansas, Texas, Florida and Kentucky) automatically qualified and two provisionally qualified (Villanova, Rice) for the men’s distance medley relay at the NCAAs. Saturday’s featured race was the men’s 800 meters as two men automatically qualified and three others provisionally qualified for the NCAAs. Adam Davis of Rice won the event in 1:48.06, while Roman Oravec of SMU was second in 1:48.27. Jeff Delong of Central Michigan (1:48.32), Joseph Lee of Kansas State (1:48.61) and Chadwick Johnson of Kentucky (1:50.10) also ran provisional times.
Other event winners on the day were Kia Flowers of Kent State in the women’s triple jump (12.26 m), Amukela Gwebu of Purdue in the men’s triple jump (14.72 m), Stanford’s Jill Camarena with a provisional mark in the women’s shot put (15.15 m), Tom Marchese of Illinois provisionally marked in the pole vault (5.32), former Irish high jumper Jennifer Engelhardt (1.72 m), Jalilu Mayo of Eastern Michigan in the 60-meter high hurdles (7.88), Gerald Rasool of Eastern Michigan in the 60-meter dash (6.89), Karen Harvey running for the adidas Track Club in the women’s 3,000 meters (9:38.68), Stanford’s Seth Hejny in the men’s 3,000 meters (8:02.76), Tracey Ball of SMU in the women’s 400-meter dash (54.42), Nduka Awazie of Eastern Michigan in the men’s 400 (46.74), Tennessee’s Kameisha Bennett in the women’s 800 meters (2:07.09), North Carolina’s Jeff Ellis in the men’s 800 (1:49.06), Kent State’s Jon Heflin in the 200 (21.46), Adrian Blincoe of Villanova in the men’s mile (4:01.61), Teresa Rice of Southern Utah in the 4:53.46 and Michigan State’s Steve Manz in the shot put (18.08).