Notre Dame competed at the Border Battle in Kentucky this weekend against host Louisville and a pair of in-state foes, Purdue and Indiana.
Thirty women and 29 men made the trip for the Irish in the last event before the ACC Outdoor Championships in Chapel Hill, N.C., beginning Wednesday.
The Irish earned four total event victories, all courtesy of the No. 22 women’s unit. Junior Jade Barber won the 100-meter dash by a .19-second margin, finishing in 11.51 seconds in 3.1 mile-per-hour wind. Another Irish victory came courtesy of her twin sister, junior Kaila Barber, who finished first in the 100-meter hurdles. Barber finished in 13.47 seconds.
“Before the race I was really nervous because it’s not something I usually do,” Jade Barber said. “It felt like a punishment because I’m so bad at it, but they were making me do it anyway. But my coaches kept telling me I was good at it. Before the race, Coach Turner took me aside, and we did drills that would simulate how the race would feel and the mechanics that were necessary to run well, so when it was time to race, I felt confident that I was going to do well.”
The last Irish victory was claimed by senior Megan Yanik in the 400-meter hurdles. Yanik finished in 1:00.67 and was followed closely by junior teammate Michelle Rotondo, who ran in 1:00.95 to finish second. Another top performance for the Irish women came from senior Aijah Urssery, whose time of 24.25 in the 200-meter dash placed her behind only sophomore La Toya Williams of Indiana.
The top field performer for the Irish was junior Mary Esther Gourdin whose triple jump of 12.70 meters was .35 meters better than second-place finisher sophomore Cierra Brown of Purdue and a full meter better than nearly all of the rest of the field.
On the men’s side, freshman Harvey Smith finished second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.52 seconds. His senior teammates Jarrod Buchanon and Bryce Wood finished third and fourth in the 110-meter hurdles after clocking in at 14.03 and 14.46 seconds, respectively. Dunn finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal best of 53.22 seconds, trailing only senior Andre’ Peart of Purdue.
In the field, senior Logan Renwick finished second in the long jump by just .04 meters with his 7.25-meter jump. He earned another second place finish in the triple jump at 14.66 meters. Seniors Ted Glasnow and Peter Kristiansen finished second and third, respectively, in the javelin throw at 54.32 and 53.38 meters.
