The Notre Dame Track and Field team shipped up to Boston this week for the highly anticipated ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships. Opening up the tournament Thursday, the Irish walked away with four championship performances in the first 24 hours. Senior Jadin O’Brien notched a first place finish in the women’s pentathlon with 4329 points and also led the 60m hurdles, shot put and 800m race.
Senior Alaina Brady — who placed second overall in the pentathlon at 4150 (PR) — led the long jump portion of the event and finished in the top five for the other components. Two other Notre Dame pentathlon contenders finished in the top 10 overall, with freshman Ellis Weekley claiming eighth place (3590) and sophomore Reese Sanders right behind in ninth (3462).
Additionally, the Irish dominated the 5000m event, with Carter Solomon winning the men’s race in 13:50.55 and Erin Strzelecki securing victory in the women’s race with a time of 15:58.04. Sophomore Ethan Coleman claimed third in the men’s event (13:51.97) while junior Siona Chisholm secured fourth in the women’s (16:05.48).
More success was found on the track as the women’s distance medley relay (DMR) team — composed of Sophie Novak, Bridget Lalonde, Claire Sievern and Olivia Markezich — set a new meet record with a time of 10:49.74. The men’s DMR — Daelen Ackley, Joey Dobrydney, Jake Renfree and CJ Singleton — also finished top three at 9:35.47.
In the subsequent days of the tournament, the Irish witnessed more exceptional performances. Markezich clinched the champion title in her individual event, the women’s 3000m, with a time of 8:52.03, further extending her impressive tally of accolades for the year. She is the first of the Irish to secure a first-place finish in this event since 2016. Other top five finishes include Michael Shoaf at third in shot put (18.90m), Ackley at fifth in the mile (4:00.19) and Madison Schmidt at fourth in the women’s high jump (1.77m).
The women led the pack by 24 points at the start of the third day of competition with 49 collective points, but ultimately fell to third with 70 points by the tournament’s end, trailing Virginia Tech (92) and Clemson (80.5). The men finished eighth with 41 points. Be sure to check out the full results for the Irish at this link.
With the ACC Championships completed, several team members will now turn their sights to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, which will be hosted at the same location from Friday, March 8 to Saturday, March 9, where they will seek to bring home more accolades for the Irish.
