Feb. 2, 2018
By Matt Paras
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame track and field team hosted the 31st annual Meyo Invitational Friday night at the Loftus Sports Center. The first day was filled with fast times and competitive sections which led to a number of Irish athletes setting personal best marks.
In the first event on the track, the Irish had four runners qualify for tomorrow’s semifinals of the 60m hurdles. Summer Thorpe, Grace Cronin, Naya Sharp and Madysen Hunter all finished in the top-24 to move on. Thorpe led the group with a personal-best time of 8.45. Cronin (8.62) and Hunter (8.74) also set personal-best times in the prelims.
The Irish had runners for the men and women qualify for the semifinals in the 60m dash. Sharp and Kyla Lewis qualified for the women. Lewis won her heat with a time of 7.60. Troy Pride Jr. won his heat (6.83) on the men’s side with the second-fastest time of the day.
Pride Jr. continued his strong day in the 200m dash. In his third meet since the end of the football season, Pride Jr. ran a personal-best time of 21.63 and finished seventh overall. Chris Meng also finished with a personal-best time in the 200m dash (22.94). Lewis finished eighth overall for the women with a time of 24.77.
Notre Dame had a strong showing from their underclassmen in the 5000m. Freshman Claudia Magnussen led the way for the women with a 17:19.00 and finished 11th overall. Fellow freshman Tyler Keslin was the top Irish finisher for the men, finishing fifth overall with a time of 14:25.61. Senior Brent Kennedy finished sixth with a time of 14:27.66.
In the men’s weight throw, Logan Kusky led the way once again for the Irish. He finished second overall with a throw of 18.27m. Shae Watkins set a personal-best mark of 15.92m and finished 13th.
Graduate student Nathan Richartz was competing unattached in the pole vault but it didn’t stop him from impressing the Irish crowd. He won the event with a top vault of 5.55m. Richartz will be back with the Irish in March as he has one outdoor season of eligibility remaining.
Up Next
Day two of the Meyo Invitational will begin tomorrow morning at 9:45 a.m. with the semifinals of the women’s 60m hurdles.
A portion of tomorrow’s meet will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra. The broadcast will begin at 2 p.m. and run until the completion of the final track event.
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Matt Paras, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since January 2018. In his role, he coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse and cross country/track & field programs. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Paras is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Administration. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, he worked at Vanderbilt University as the sports information contact for the women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.