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Friday, March 29, 2024
The Observer

Irish win Botts Invitational

The Tigers couldn't keep up with the Irish this weekend. The Notre Dame track and field team won 11 events at the University of Missouri's Tom Botts Invitational Friday and Saturday, while Missouri won 10 events to finish an unofficial second in the non-team scoring meet. Iowa State and Iowa were the other two schools competing. Selim Nurudeen was the star for Notre Dame as he won the Outstanding Male Athlete of the Meet award with his meet-record tying time of 14.20 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. The win was his third straight in the 110 hurdles this season.However, Nurudeen was not the only Irish athlete to have a record-setting weekend as Kate Duman hurled the javelin 43.07 meters to finish in first place and break her own school record. With her toss, Duman also qualified for the NCAA Regional Meet.Notre Dame had winners in both the men's and women's 400 meters as Ayesha Boyd and Ryan Postel finished first in times of 56.26 and 48.12 seconds respectively.The Irish also dominated the triple jump as Godwin Mbagwu and Petra Dankova won the men's and women's events. Mbagwu hopped, skipped and jumped for a length of 14.52 meters while Dankova covered a distance of 12.21 meters.Juan Alba continued his success in the hammer throw as he finished first with a season-best toss of 55.45 meters. The other male hammer throwers had season-best performances as well, as Chip Roberts finished in fourth place and Jason Davis placed fifth. Thomas Chamney and Napoleon Suarez both finished the meet with season-best times. Chamney won the 800 meters in only 1:52.52 and Suarez took first place in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.92 seconds. Tommie Lee sprinted to the first outdoor win of his career, winning the 100-meter dash in 11.13 seconds. A number of Irish competitors also qualified for the Big East Championships. Molly Huddle, who ran outdoors for the first time this season, took third place in the 1,500 meters in a qualifying time of 4:31.91. Eric Morrison also had a third-place finish as he ran the 800 meters in a conference qualifying time of 1:53.03. Other Big East qualifiers were Ryan Johnson and Todd Ptacek who finished first and third in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with times of 9:16.54 and 9:27.27, respectively. Alex Fortunato qualified with his 55.62 time and fifth-place finish in the 400 meter hurdles.