The Irish will host the 30th annual Meyo Invitational at Loftus Sports Center this upcoming Friday and Saturday.
As a prestigious meet, the Meyo Invitational is one of Notre Dame’s biggest home meets besides the ACC indoor championships this year, according to junior Jessica Harris.
“We have a good competition this weekend,” Harris said. “It’s a pretty big meet that has a high profile for the Midwest. We even have professional runners racing the Meyo Mile, and there will be good competition all around. It’s definitely more competitive than last weekend at the Black and Gold Premier. There’s going to be a field where I can mix it up with some girls and get pulled along to a better time since this will really be our first encounter with the mile recently.”
In years past, Harris said the Meyo Invitational serves as an indication for the rest of the indoor season.
“We normally place pretty high at Meyo,” Harris said. “I’d say it shows what we will be capable of for the rest of the indoor season. People should be getting up to good times, at least for mid-distance kids as they start building more endurance. Everyone is looking at their times and hoping to do well at ACCs and then looking for times to qualify for ACC Nationals.”
While training for the meet this week, Harris mentioned that the Meyo Invitational will reveal what she will run later on in the season.
“My goal is to run the 800 [meters] and the mile at the ACCs, and I want to place high in those events and improve my placement in the 800 from last year,” Harris said. “Saturday I want to see how my mile goes and see if it is a possibility to run it later on in the season. Right now I am coming off of cross country so I need to get in key workouts before the ACCs. This week I’ll do two good workouts, get some speed endurance and some nice tempo in, and then after Wednesday I’ll just be resting up for the mile on Saturday.”
Although hosting the home meet has its additional challenges, Harris said she enjoys the atmosphere and competition.
“It isn’t easy balancing good training sessions along with other work and getting ready for the Meyo, but ultimately we are keeping eyes focused on ACC indoor nationals. We want to have these key races like the Meyo before then. Also it is exciting to host and having a home crowd is great.”
