The Notre Dame men and women finished 17th and 29th, respectively, at the NCAA Indoor Championship in Albuquerque, N.M., concluding Sunday. Each Irish athlete that participated in a preliminary event qualified for finals as the Irish competed in their final meet of the indoor season.
Both the men’s and women’s sides qualified a team for the distance medley relay event that took place Saturday. Graduate student J.P. Malette, seniors Patrick Feeney and Nick Happe and freshman Jacob Dumford finished in 9:41.90 to take fourth place and earn the team five points. On the women’s side, seniors Kelly Curran, Alexa Aragon and Michelle Brown and sophomore Danielle Aragon posted a third-place time of 11:11.54 to earn six points.
Junior Jade Barber took seventh place and earned two points for the women in the 60-meter hurdles with her 8.10-second finish.
On Sunday, the Irish men had two athletes, Feeney and fellow All-American and junior Chris Giesting, running in the 400-meter dash. Feeney put the finishing touches on an accomplished indoor career with a time of 46.19 seconds to finish in seventh place, and Giesting finished two spots ahead in fifth place with a time of 45.74 seconds. These results earned the Irish men two and four points, respectively.
Giesting and Feeney also ran in the 4x400-meter relay Sunday, along with freshman Harvey Smith and senior Jarrod Buchanon. That unit, anchored by Feeney, finished in eighth place with a time of 3:08.51, earning the Irish a single point.
The Irish men’s 12 points tied them for 17th place with Nebraska and USC, while the women’s eight gave them a share of 29th place, along with USC, UCLA and Arizona State. Oregon claimed both the men’s and women’s titles.
Notre Dame now turns its attention to outdoor season beginning late this month. The Irish are back in action March 26th, with the team headed to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Relays and Houston for the Victor Lopez Invitational at the same time.
