April 30, 2000
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame track and field teams split their squads Friday and Saturday to attend two different meets, the Drake Relays and the Boiler Open, in their final tune-up before next weekend’s BIG EAST championships at Rutgers University, May 5-7.
At the prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, the men’s 4×100-meter relay team of seniors Chris Cochran (Crystal Lake, Ill.) and Marshaun West (Sikeston, Mo.), junior Travis Davey (St. James, N.Y.) and freshman Tom Gilbert (Rock Falls, Ill.) recorded a time of 41.06 in the 4×100-meter relay en route to a third-place finish. Senior Jennifer Engelhardt (Battle Creek, Mich.) rounded out the team’s top-five finishers after tying for fourth in the high jump by clearing 5-8 3/4. Senior Matt Thompson (Granite Bay, Calif.) also recorded a team season-best mark of 175-4 in the discus as did junior hurdler Carri Lenz (London, Ont.), who ran a time of 1:03.06 in the 400 hurdles. Senior middle distance runner Tim Kober (Gillette, N.J.) rounded out the Irish highlights with a personal best time of 1:48.48 in the 800 meters to provisionally qualify for the NCAAs.
At the Boiler Open at nearby Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., Notre Dame earned three event titles all in the distance running events. Junior Chrissy Kuenster (Wheaton, Ill.) won the women’s 3,000 meters Friday with a personal best time of 10:16.67. Sophomore Anne McGrath (Belmont, Mich.) then followed up Kuenster’s performance with a victory at 10,000 meters, running the race with a time of 38:28.79, more than a minute faster than teammate Valerie Siqueria (Mishawaka, Ind.), who finished second with a time of 39:32.66. Senior men’s distance runner Mike Griewe (Tampa, Fla.) then rounded out the Notre Dame winners on Saturday with a first-place finish in the 5,000 meters in 14:54.48, a personal-best time.
Other Irish highlights at the Purdue meet included sophomore Josh Heck’s (Mishawaka, Ind.) and freshman Nathan Cahill’s (East Lansing, Mich.) clearance of a team season-best 15-11 in the pole vault and sophomore Derek Dyer’s (Huntington, Ind.) throw of 52-0 1/2 in the shot put (team season high).
The men’s and women’s track and field teams travel to the BIG EAST championships, May 5-7, at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. The event, which will be run at the Bauer Track and Field Complex, is being broadcast live on the internet at www.trackmeets.com.