May 5, 2001
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The University of Notre Dame men’s track and field team is in a tie for third place with the University of Connecticut after the first day of competition at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships. The Irish earned 34 points in today’s competition, trailing leader West Virginia by 16 points.
Senior Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.) added his seventh individual BIG EAST title with a win in the 10,000-meter run today, providing the lone win for the Irish squad. Shay crossed the line in 29:17.61, with his closest competitor trailing him by 12 seconds. His time today meets the NCAA provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, but Shay automatically qualified earlier in the season with the 28:40.03 he ran at the Stanford Invitational.
In field event action, two Irish competitors earned all-BIG EAST honors with their performances. Junior Derek Dyer (Huntington, Ind.) threw 167 feet, 1 inch in the discus to earn second place and qualify him for the IC4A championships as well. Junior Quill Redwine (San Antonio, Tx.) also added an All-BIG EAST title with a second place finish in the high jump, matching his season best jump of 6 feet, 10.75 inches. Also contributing points for the Irish in the high jump was senior Andrew Cooper, (Granville, Ohio) who jumped 6 feet 5 inches to place seventh.
In the long jump, sophomore Tom Gilbert (Rock Falls, Ill.) took sixth place, jumping 23 feet, 9.5 inches, up from his previous season best of 22 feet, 8 inches, a mark he recorded at the Mt. Sac Relays last week.
Other members of the team earned the right to advance to tomorrow’s finals with their performances in today’s qualifying heats. Senior Pat Conway (Springfield, Va.) ran a 3:50.53 in the 1500-meter run, good enough to place him fourth heading into tomorrow’s finals. Conway’s time also qualifies him for the IC4A championships. Joining Conway in the 1500-meter final tomorrow will be freshman Kevin Somok, (Southburg, Conn.) who ran a 3:51.73, the eighth fastest qualifying time. Also set to run in tomorrow’s finals is senior Travis Davey, (St. James, N.Y.) whose qualifying time of 21.56 places him sixth in the 200-meter dash. Davey’s time is his best of the season, an improvement over his previous best of 21.71 from the Arizona State Invitational.