Feb. 28, 2001
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WHO:
Notre Dame men’s track and field team
WHAT:
2001 Alex Wilson Invitational
WHERE:
Loftus Sports Center, Notre Dame, Ind.
WHEN:
Fri., March 2 (6 a.m.) – Sat., March 3 (10:30 a.m.)
Irish hope to add more NCAA qualifiers at Alex Wilson:
The University of Notre Dame men’s track and field team returns home this weekend for the 2001 Alex Wilson Invitational to be held in the Loftus Sports Center.
With the NCAA Championships looming just a week away, scheduled for March 9-10 in Fayetteville, Ark., this will be the last opportunity for Irish athletes to qualify or improve on their times.
Senior All-American Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.) will be focused on the latter this weekend as he tries to defend his Alex Wilson title in the 5,000 meters after earning his ticket to the NCAAs earlier this season. In last month’s Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame, Shay posted a school-record 13:52.66 in the 5,000 meters, which automatically qualified him for the NCAA Championships. That time is currently ranked second-best in the nation among collegians. He also won his fourth career conference title and second 5,000-meter title when he outran the field at last month’s BIG EAST Championships.
Shay also will be a favorite in the 3,000 meters, an event in which he recorded a provisional qualifying time of 8:10.21 in finishing second at the conference meet. Shay’s performance at the BIG EAST was the top time of his career in the 3,000 meters, shattering his previous best by more than 9.5 seconds.
As a team at the conference meet, Notre Dame also performed well, finishing in third place behind Georgetown, which captured its fourth consecutive BIG EAST title, and Seton Hall. The Irish have finished in the top three in each BIG EAST Championship since joining the conference six seasons ago.
Other Irish athletes will be trying to perform well enough this weekend to join Shay at the NCAA meet. One area which has been strong all season for Notre Dame is the field events. Senior Andrew Cooper (Granville, Ohio) was the only other individual champion for Notre Dame as he finished first in the high jump by scaling 6-9. Cooper and junior Quill Redwine (San Antonio, Texas) should be factors this weekend in the high jump. Redwine recorded the top performance for Notre Dame this year by clearing 6-10 3/4 in a home dual meet against Michigan State in January. He finished fourth in the high jump at last year’s Alex Wilson.
Redwine will also be one of the favorites in the triple jump, an event he won at last year’s Alex Wilson Invitational. In 2001, he will have some stiff competition, though, from freshman teammate Godwin Mbagwu (Petersburg, Va.). Mbagwu finished second in the event at the BIG EAST meet and has the longest jump of the season, a leap of 50-4 3/4 in the trianbular meet with Ball State and Western Michigan.
Another top field event for the Irish is the pole vault, an event in which Notre Dame placed two vaulters in the top five in the conference meet. Junior Josh Heck (Mishawaka, Ind.) and sophomore Nathan Cahill (East Lansing, Mich.) both cleared 15-9 at the BIG EAST meet to finish second and fifth respectively. Heck holds the top vault of the season after clearing 16-2 3/4 at the Meyo Invitational. Both vaulters will look to improve on strong performances in last year’s Alex Wilson Invitational when Heck finished fourth with a vault of 16-0 and Cahill was fifth.
Notre Dame also has posted some outstanding relay performances in 2001, especially by the distance medley relay team. After the Irish took sixth in the event in last year’s national meet, the group of seniors Sean Zanderson (Poway, Calif.), Terry Wray (Brandon, Miss.), Nate Andrulonis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and junior Patrick Conway (Springfield, Va.) recorded a season-best time of 10:07.96 and finished fifth at the BIG EAST Championships. Notre Dame won the event at the 2000 Alex Wilson with a blistering school-record time of 9:39.40.
Zanderson and Conway have also helped Notre Dame this season in the mile run, both finishing in the top five at the BIG EAST meet. Conway, who set the team season-best time of 4:11.52 vs. Michigan State, finished fourth in the conference in 4:15.22, while Zanderson was fifth with a time of 4:15.68.