May 31, 2003
The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field team wrapped up competition at the NCAA Mideast Regional on Saturday and will end up sending at eight competitors to the NCAA Championship in Sacramento, Calif., on June 11. Lauren King finished fifth in the 1,500 meters (4:19.02) to move on to the national championship race. The women’s 4×400-meter team also secured a spot in the NCAA field on Saturday.
Lauren King joins Tameisha King (long jump), Molly Huddle (5,000 meters) and Luke Watson (5,000 meters), who secured their invitations during Friday’s competition.
Freshman Stephanie Madia also ran in the finals of the 1,500 meters and finished 10th (4:30.94). Teammate and sophomore Kerry Meagher ended up 11th in 4:31.77.
Sophomore Eric Morrison represented the Irish in the finals of the men’s 1,500 meters and ran well against the highly talented field. Morrison finished in 3:53.07, taking ninth place.
Yet another sophomore, Selim Nurudeen, continued his improvement into one of the top hurdlers in the Midwest. Nurudeen advanced to the final race with a 13.91 effort in heat two on Friday evening. In the finals on Saturday afternoon, Nurudeen shaved .07 seconds off his preliminary time to end up seventh in the field (13.84).
The women’s 4×100-meter relay time of senior Tameisha King, junior Kristen Dodd, junior Ayesha Boyd and senior Kymia Love missed out on an automatic bid to the national meet in the final race on Saturday. The Irish squad finished seventh in 45.76, but still could be invited to the NCAA Championship depending on other performances by teams across the country.
The 4×400-meter team did run a solid race on Saturday, however. The team of Tiffany Gunn, Dodd, Boyd and Love finished third in the final heat (3:40.04) – a time which also ended up third overall and puts the team in the NCAA final meet.
Three women represented the Irish in the high jump Saturday evening. Both sophomores, Stacey Cowan and Emily Loomis cleared 1.71m (5-7 1/4) to tie for third with 15 other competitors. Their status for the national meet is uncertain at the time of this release. Kelsey Wicks also competed, but did not clear the minimum height required to place in the event.
Sophomore Chris Staron was the lone Irish representative in the men’s high jump and finished ninth, clearing 2.08m (6-9 3/4).
Junior BIG EAST Champion Godwin Mbagwu appeared on the run way for the Irish in the triple jump. Competing in flight one, Mbagwu finished second with a 15.22m (49-11 1/2) best jump. Mbagwu finished 17th overall when both flight one and two were combined.
David Alber made the trip to Ohio State to run in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Alber competed in the first heat, finishing 12th in 9:30.20.
Rounding out the competitors for the Irish was freshman Petra Dankova in the women’s triple jump. An all-BIG EAST indoor performer, Dankova finished tied for sixth in flight two with a 12.16m (39-10 3/4) measurement.