In the final meets of the regular season before the Big East championships, the Irish finished strong with 15 top-five finishes at the Drake Relays and the Hillsdale College Gina Relays.
The quartet of sophomore Chris Giesting, juniors Jarrod Buchanon and Patrick Feeney and senior Brendan Dougherty led the Irish in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Drake Relays. The team came in fifth in the 4x400-meter relay, an event that afforded the sprinters to compete as a team.
"I love running with my teammates instead of competing against them," Giesting said. "I have to compete against my teammates at almost every meet we go to so it is great to run relays where you are competing with them."
Giesting said the relay team is confident heading into the Big East championships, which begin Friday.
"It gives us confidence and shows us that our training is coming together," Giesting said. "Our 4-by-4 just set the school record, so we are all confident heading into the Big East championship."
Not to be outdone, the women's 4x400-meter relay team of freshman phenom Margaret Bamgbose, sophomore Amber Lalla and juniors Megan Yanik and Michelle Brown won the prelims with a time of 3:36.77 and placed second in the finals with a 3:34.39 mark. In similar fashion, the team of freshman Danielle Aragon, juniors Kelly Curran and Alexa Aragon and senior Rebecca Tracy took the win in its 4x800-meter relay, edging second-place Illinois by nearly four seconds. In addition to its triumph in the 4x800-meter relay, the sister duo of Danielle and Alexa Aragon took fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 1,500-meter race.
Over at the Hillsdale (Mich.) College Gina Relays, the 46-athlete Irish continued the strong performances as four competitors placed in the top-15 for multiple events. Freshman Lena Madison had an especially great day, with top-15 finishes in the shot put, hammer throw and discus, where she placed seventh, 10th and 15th, respectively. Junior Emily Kujawski hung tight with Madison, placing sixth and 11th in the shot put and hammer throw, respectively.
For the men, seniors Ted Glasnow and Anthony Thomas also turned in multiple top-15 finishes. For Glasnow, an 11th-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles and a 12th-place finish in the 100-meter sprint primed the decathlon for the conference championship, while Thomas' second and third-place performances stood out in the hammer throw and the discus.
This weekend, the Irish will travel to Piscataway, N.J., for the Big East championships. In the indoor season, the women's team won the conference title, while the men came in second. Championship action gets under way Friday in New Jersey and continues through Sunday.
Contact Cole Schietinger at cschieti@nd.edu
