Notre Dame will kick off its indoor season with two events this weekend. Most of the team members will stay at home for today's Blue & Gold Invitational at the Loftus Sports Center, while several multi-eventers will travel to the Kent State Field House in Kent, Ohio for the Golden Flash Gala, which begin today and continue Saturday.
The meets are the only ones the Irish have scheduled in December, but senior long jumper and captain Logan Renwick said the weekend presents a good opportunity for the squad to get back into competition after training for most of the fall.
"It's a very small meet," Renwick said of the Blue & Gold Invitational. "It's a good chance to get our first meet in before winter break. The freshman also get their first collegiate meet in heading to the indoor season."
For the second consecutive season, the Irish will welcome Marquette, Bethel, DePaul and Detroit Mercy to the Blue & Gold Invitational. Despite winning 26 of 33 events at last year's meet, the Irish are not focused on a team victory, Renwick said. Instead, he noted the team is concentrated on qualifying as many individuals as it can for the ACC Indoor Championships in February.
Several top distance runners will be absent, however, as they recover from the NCAA Cross Country Championship on Nov. 23. Instead, the team will look to performers from other events to step up, Renwick said.
"A lot of our top distance guys will be gone, but some of our sprinters like [junior] Jade Barber, [junior] Chris Giesting and [senior] Pat Feeney had a lot of success last year, and they should have a great meet," Renwick said.
At the Golden Flash Gala, graduate student Ted Glasnow and sophomore Brent Swanberg will compete in the heptathlon, while senior Meghan Moore and junior Carly Loeffel are entered in the pentathlon. Loeffel and Glasnow are coming off an outdoor season in which Loeffel earned All-Big East honors in the heptathlon and Glasnow racked up All-Big East honors in the decathlon, and Renwick said he believes both are primed for a fast start to the season.
"All the multi-eventers have had great training leading up to this weekend, so they should put up some big performances, especially Loeffel and Glasnow," Renwick said.
Looking down the road, Renwick said the Irish would look to get off to a good start in their first season in the ACC.
"The ACC is a great conference and will continue to be in the future and we're excited for the challenge," Renwick said. "It's a really competitive group of teams, and we know that it will be more difficult than the Big East was, but we feel we can jump right in and make an impact immediately. The goal is always a conference championship, and hopefully the performances this weekend will be a good first step towards eventually reaching that."
The Irish will split up this weekend, competing at home in the Blue & Gold Invitational at the Loftus Center today, and throughout the weekend at the Golden Flash Gala in Kent, Ohio.
Contact Greg Hadley at ghadley@nd.edu
