May 6, 2001
The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s track and field teams wrapped up competition in the 2001 BIG EAST Outdoor Championship in Piscataway, NJ, on Sunday. The women placed third in the meet for the third consecutive year, scoring 83 team points to finish behind Miami (104) and Seton Hall (95) and tied with Georgetown. The men’s 63-point total was sixth, behind Georgetown (155), Villanova, Connecticut, Seton Hall and Rutgers.
Junior All-American sprinter Liz Grow (New Braunfels, Texas) highlighted the final day for the women’s team, capturing her second BIG EAST 400-meter title with a 53.17 effort in the finals. Her 52.40 time from the preliminary heat on Saturday has qualified Grow for a trip to the NCAA Championship, where she will attempt to repeat her indoor 400-meter All-American finish.
Notre Dame’s top sprinter was not done for the day after her victory in the 400. She also finished second in the 200 meters (24.20) to earn all-BIG EAST honors and was a member of the BIG EAST Champion 4×100 relay team of Kristen Dodd (Toledo, Ohio), Emily Bienko (Tranquillity, NJ) and Kymia Love (Memphis, Tenn.).
The 4×100 victory was the first BIG EAST titles for Dodd and Love, both in their first year of conference competition as freshman on the Irish roster. Making the relay team victory even more special was the effort of Bienko, who stepped in to replace Tameisha King on the day of the event.
Love, Dodd, Bienko and Grow also finished fourth in the 4×400 relay (3:39.45).
Freshman Ayesha Boyd (Spartanburg, SC) followed up her blistering 100-meter 11.88 preliminary time on Saturday by finishing second in the finals in an even faster 11.86.
Jennifer Handley (Barrie, Ont.) posted an impressive finish in the 5,000 meters, taking second in 16:40.36 – an NCAA Championship consideration time.
Dore DeBartolo (Aurora, Ill.) solidified her position as one of the top point scorers on the team, finishing in the top five in three throw events. She took fifth in the shot put (45-6 1/2), third in the discus (148-11) and fourth in the hammer (178-5).
The men’s team attempted to carry the momentum of Ryan Shay’s (Central Lake, Mich.) victory in the 10,000 meters on Saturday into Sunday’s final races. Senior Travis Davey (St. James, NY) took seventh place in the 200 meters on Sunday (22.53), following up his season-best 21.56 time in the preliminaries on Saturday.
Freshman Napolean Suarez (Brown Mills, NJ) took sixth place in the finals of the 400-meter hurdles (54.12), while Kevin Somok (Southburg, Conn.) and Pat Conway (Springfield, Va.) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 1,500 meters.
Quill Redwine (San Antonio, Texas) finished off an impressive meet on Sunday with a sixth place finish in the triple jump (47-5 3/4), following his runner-up clearance of 6-10 3/4 in the high jump on Saturday.
Josh Heck (Mishawaka, Ind.) earned all-BIG EAST honors with third-place 15-9 effort in the pole vault – a personal-best finish at the conference outdoor meet for the Irish junior.