March 8, 2002
The University of Notre Dame women’s track and field team sent a school-record seven competitors to the 2001 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend, and four Irish competitors saw individual action on Friday, March 8.
Liz Grow posted the highlight for the women’s team on Friday, putting herself in position for her first NCAA title with a 52.73 school-record effort in the 400 meters. Grow’s blistering time was good enough to win her preliminary heat and ranks the Irish senior third overall entering tomorrow’s finals at 6:45 p.m.
Grow became the first Notre Dame women’s sprinter to earn All-America honors when she finished eighth in last year’s NCAA indoor meet and is poised to eclipse that effort on Saturday. Grow also became the first Irish women’s sprinter to finish first in a preliminary heat at the NCAA Championships. The 52.73 time breaks her own school record that she set at the Alex Wilson Invitational on campus last weekend.
Grow was not the only sprinter competing in the NCAA Championships for the women’s team. Sophomore Ayesha Boyd earned a spot in the field with an impressive 24.02 time at the Alex Wilson Invitational last weekend and repeated that effort on Friday. Boyd ran in the third heat of the women’s 200 meters, finishing third in 24.04. Boyd ended up 17th in the highly competitive field.
Freshman Lauren King was the third Irish competitor to take to the track in Fayetteville, and the rookie just missed advancing to the finals of the mile run. King ended up in the fastest of the two preliminary heats on Friday, running 4:45.09 to finish seventh. All six runners that finished ahead of King in her heat advanced the finals, compared to just four runners from heat one. Her 4:45.02 time ended up just .07 seconds behind the last qualifier for the final race.
Junior Tameisha King was the lone Irish field event competitor to represent the women’s team on Friday. A 2000 outdoor long jump All-American, King jumped 19-9 (6.02m) in her first indoor national meet to finish sixth in her flight and 13th overall.
Grow will compete in the finals of the 400 meters tomorrow and will be joined by Boyd, Kristen Dodd and Kymia Love in the finals of the 4×400 relay. The Irish team enters the race with the third-best time in the field.