Junior Thomas Chamney earned a berth in the finals of the 800-meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships after finishing eighth in the semifinals with a time of 1.47.70 (second-best in school history) on Thursday in Sacramento, Calif.

Track Adds Four More Regional Qualifiers During Weekend Competitions

April 22, 2006

Central Collegiate Championship Results | Oregon Invitational Results

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – With two weeks to go before the BIG EAST Conference Championships and only a month prior to the NCAA Mideast Regional, the Notre Dame track & field teams continued their drive to the postseason with strong performances at a pair of meets this weekend. Between the two events, the Irish registered four more NCAA regional qualifying marks, boosting their season total to 22, along with two national provisional standards in the 10,000 meters.

Central Collegiates
The majority of the Notre Dame squads headed to Ypsilanti, Mich., on Saturday for the Central Collegiate Championships at Rynearson Stadium on the Eastern Michigan campus. All told, Irish athletes accounted for seven individual titles and 11 runner-up finishes, not to mention two NCAA Mideast Regional qualifications.

Sophomore Kyle Annen (Orofino, Idaho/Orofino) had one of Notre Dame’s signature performances on the day, winning the hammer throw with a personal-best and regional-qualifying heave of 187-1 (57.02 meters). That mark also ranks seventh in school history and was the best by an Irish thrower in nearly 10 years, dating back to Greg Moretti’s fling of 191-3 (58.30m) at the 1996 BIG EAST Championships.

Junior sprinter Maryann Erigha (Stone Mountain, Ga./Chamblee) was up to her old tricks on Saturday afternoon, taking runner-up honors in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. In the 100, Erigha turned in a season-best time of 11.60 seconds, which also matched the sixth-fastest clocking in school history (her own mark set at last year’s Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta). Erigha also ran the third leg on the Irish 4×100-meter relay unit that booked its place in the NCAA Mideast Regional with a second-place finish and season-best mark of 45.67 seconds.

Other spotlight efforts at the Central Collegiates included: senior Ryan Postel (Lexington, Ky./Lexington Catholic), who took second in the 400 meters in a season-best 46.89 seconds, the seventh-fastest time in school history, and sophomore Jacqueline Carter (Boise, Idaho/Bishop Kelly), whose runner-up 800-meter time of 2:09.21 (a personal best) moves into fifth place on the all-time Irish top 10 list.

Oregon Invitational
The Irish sent four male distance runners to the Oregon Invitational in Eugene, Ore., this weekend and competing before a record crowd of more than 6,300 fans at historic Hayward Field, junior All-American Kurt Benninger (Chepstow, Ontario/Walkerton D.S.S.) and junior Thomas Chamney (Tipperary, Ireland/St. Columba’s) both qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regional. Running for the first time during the 2006 outdoor season, Benninger placed seventh in the 5,000-meter “A” race with a time of 13:55.54, which also goes down as the eighth-fastest time in school history. Meanwhile, Chamney also made his outdoor debut this year and came away with a third-place finish in the 800 meters (1:49.44).

Freshman Patrick Smyth (Salt Lake City, Utah/Judge Memorial) ran in the “B” section of the 5,000-meter run and took third place in a season-best 14:10.05, missing out on regional qualification by a mere five-hundredths (.05) of a second. Senior Kaleb Van Ort (Waterloo, Ind./DeKalb) competed in the 10,000 meters, coming in 13th place with a time of 30:10.67.

Next weekend will mark the final competitions for Notre Dame prior to the BIG EAST Championships. A handful of Irish athletes will head to Des Moines, Iowa, for the prestigious Drake Relays, while the balance of the Notre Dame roster ventures to Hillsdale, Mich., for the Hillsdale Gina Relays.

— ND —