HOUSTON, Texas — The Irish kicked off their outdoor season with a program record and multiple top-ten finishes at the 37th annual Victor Lopez Classic.
Gabrielle Diederich led the Irish with her school record performance in the women’s javelin, launching a rocket 47.21m for first overall.
The two-day event began Friday evening with a second place finish by Logan Kusky in the men’s hammer throw when he threw for a distance of 62.30m while Shae Watkins took sixth overall in 53.11m.
The women’s event followed with Rachel Tanczos claiming bronze as she threw 59.60m and Abbey Kapitan took 10th with a throw of 49.73m.
Saturday got underway with Madysen Hunter racing in the 100m hurdles where she finished fifth overall with a time of 14.77 seconds.
Shortly after, Zachary Zajdel crossed the line of the 400m dash in 49.54 seconds.
In the early session of the women’s 100m dash, Kyla Lewis finished fifth overall, clocking in at 12.11 seconds.
Rachel Tanczos kept the medals coming as she finished second in the women’s discus as her fifth attempt went 49.40m.
In the long jump competition, two Irish individuals found themselves in the top-10 as Connor Artman took sixth with a jump of 7.14m in the men’s event and Jernaya Sharp claimed eighth in 5.68m. Both Artman and Sharp recorded their best jumps in the first round, leaping out to a hot start.
Abbey Kapitan claimed third in the women’s shot put (14.74m), edging out teammate Rachel Tanczos who finished fourth with a throw of 14.71m.
The Irish boasted three women in the final 100m hurdle heat of the evening as Summer Thorpe took first overall with a time of 13.63 seconds. Grace Cronin and Jernaya Sharp finished sixth and seventh, respectively, crossing the line just 0.13 seconds apart.
The final events of the day featured two jumps in the men’s triple jump and the women’s high jump. Leaping 13.58m on his second jump, Osy Ekwueme took fifth in the men’s triple jump. Emma Bzik earned her spot in the top-10 following a clearance of 1.57m in the evening’s high jump.
Up Next
Notre Dame will be represented at the Texas Relays, Stanford Invitational and the Raleigh Relays next weekend as the team splits for a series of meets, March 29-30.
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