April 17, 2000

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame junior All-American Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.) broke a 11-year-old school record and qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials later this year by running a time of 28:26.91 in the 10,000 meters Friday at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

Shay placed fourth overall in the race, but was the first collegiate runner and first American, finishing behind two runners from Mexico and one from Germany. Shay’s personal best and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 28:26.91 beat the previous school record of 28:44.91 set by Ron Markezich in 1989. His time also met the provisional qualifying time of 28:50.00 for the U.S. Olympic Trials and was a little over one second faster than the Olympic Games B Qualifying time, which is 28:28.00.

Other Notre Dame athletes competing at the Mt. SAC meet included freshman Tameisha King (Mableton, Ga.), who finished second in the women’s long jump with a leap of 19-9, and senior Tim Kober (Gillette, N.J.) who placed third in the 800 meters with a time of 1:49.47. The Irish had two others, sophomores Liz Grow (New Braunfels, Texas) and Luke Watson (Stillwater, Minn.), record fourth-place finishes in 400 meters and 3,000-meter steeple chase.

While in California, a few Irish athletes also competed at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite at Pomona College on Friday, April 14. Grow highlighted the meet by running a personal-best and NCAA B qualifying time of 53.35, the second-fastest in school history, in the 400 meters. Freshman Jamie Volkmer (Kearney, Neb.) turned in two fourth-place finishes in the pole vault (10-11 3/4) and the triple jump (37-6 3/4), while senior Matt Thompson was fourth in the hammer throw with a mark of 173-7.

The Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field squads will be back in action this weekend at the Ball State Invitational, Saturday, April 22, in Muncie, Ind.