July 14, 2000

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame will be well represented at the 2000 U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials, July 14-23, at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. Current Notre Dame senior All-American Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.), former Irish All-American Jennifer Engelhardt (Battle Creek, Mich.) and current Notre Dame volunteer assistant coach Tonya Lawson (Mishawaka, Ind.) will all compete for the chance to qualify for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Shay will run in the men’s 10,000-meter race scheduled for Friday at 8:45 p.m. PDT. The Irish senior earned All-America honors for the second consecutive year at the 2000 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 10,000 meters. Shay qualified for the trials with a time of 28:26.91, which he recorded at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., in mid-April. Shay’s time is the 14th-fastest in the 35-man field, which is led by two-time Olympian Bob Kennedy, who ran the fastest qualifying time of 27:38.37.

Engelhardt finished her Notre Dame career by garnering All-America honors in the high jump at this year’s NCAA outdoor championships in early June. Engelhardt also earned All-America honors twice at the NCAA indoor meet, becoming the first Notre Dame woman so honored in a field event in 1997. The three-time BIG EAST outdoor high jump champion qualified for the trials with a school record-setting clearance of 6-0 3/4 at the 1999 Mt. SAC Relays. Engelhardt will compete in the preliminaries of the high jump on Friday at 12:20 p.m., with the finals set for Sunday, July 16.

Lawson has been a volunteer coach at Notre Dame for the past four seasons, working with the sprinters and hurdlers while training with Notre Dame assistant coach John Millar. Lawson was a three-time All-American at the University of Alabama and will compete in the women’s 100-meter hurdles on Saturday, July 22, at 9:45 a.m. She enters the competition with the fifth-fastest qualifying time of 12.77.