Despite splitting up this past weekend, the Irish continued to succeed. Whether out in California at the Mt. SAC Relays and California Invitational, or in-state at the Polytan Invitational in Bloomington, Notre Dame's athletes were able to produce great performances.
In California, the Irish pulled off a first-place sectional finish on the shoulders of its four competitors. Senior decathlete Ted Glasnow had a great outing, with a 7,315-point performance at the California Invitational. By comparison, the second-place finisher, Wisconsin freshman Charlie Foss, scored 6,800 points.
One motivating factor Glasnow credited for his first-place finish was his family and friends' attendance.
"It was a great experience," Glasnow said. "The meet was during the week, so it was sparsely-attended. I could distinctly hear my relatives and friends going crazy for everything I did."
Glasnow's score was the highest for a Big East decathlete this season and the 13th best nationally. Coming off such a performance, Glasnow said he must now turn his attention to preparation for the Big East championships.
"I am very happy with my first-day performance, so I will just try to keep things consistent for my next decathlon at Big East," he said. "My second day, however, was disappointing. I had been practicing well in every event, but I could not manifest that preparation into a good mark for pole vault, javelin or the 1500. For those events, I need to get as much work as it takes to get my confidence back."
Senior long distance runner Jeremy Rae and sophomore heptathlete Carly Loeffel also stood out with top-five finishes in the 1,500-meter at the Mt. SAC Relays and the heptathlon at the California Invitational, respectively. For Loeffel, her fifth-place performance was the best of her career. Rae's finish was also outstanding, as he came in only 1.22 seconds short of the best time nationally during the 2012-2013 outdoor season.
On Saturday, the rest of the team exceeded its high expectations with 42 top-five finishes at the Polytan Invitational. Building on her already great freshman season, sprinter Margaret Bamgbose dominated for the women's team with three event victories in the 400-meter, 4x100-meter and the 4x400-meter races. Also taking first were senior Nevada Sorenson, in the 100-meter hurdles, and sophomore Mary Esther Gourdin, in the triple jump.
The junior girls stole the show in Bloomington, with AijahUrssery, Jessie Christian, Michelle Brown, Vivien Devaney and Megan Yanik winning the 100-meter sprint, long jump, 200-meter race, hammer throw and the 400-meter hurdles, respectively. In addition to their great efforts, juniors Kelly Burke, Emily Kujawski, Meg Ryan and Jaclyn Winkel also finished in the top five for their events.
On the men's side, junior Patrick Feeney led the way with victories in both the 200-meter and 4x100-meter races. Also winning their events were senior Anthony Thomas in the hammer throw and junior Logan Renwick in the triple jump.
With Thomas setting the tone, the men excelled in the field events. Junior Jordan Stumph had a great weekend with two third-place finishes in the shot put and the hammer throw. Similarly, sophomore Dominick Pavodano turned in a pair of top-five finishes, as he finished in fourth place in the shot put and second place in the hammer throw. Also contributing multiple top-five finishes were senior Brendan Dougherty, who ended up with a third-place finish in the 200-meters and a victory in the 4x100-meter relays, and sophomore Keith Mesidor, who had second-place finishes in the 100-meter sprint and the long jump. Overall, the men had 16 competitors with top-five finishes.
This Friday, the Irish will try to continue their success when they head to Hillsdale, Michigan, to compete in the Hillsdale Gina Relays.
Contact Cole Schietinger at cschieti@nd.edu
