For Notre Dame track and field, the outdoor season calendar turns to April this weekend. The Irish will take a trip to Rocky Top for the Tennessee Relays in Knoxville, Tennessee, beginning a busy month before the postseason.
Last week, the Irish competed in the North Carolina State-hosted Raleigh Relays, with several runners posting times that qualified them for regionals. The three-day competition began Thursday with six Notre Dame men's distance runners registering times that positioned them to qualify for regionals.
In the 1500-meter run, senior Carter Solomon (3:43.04) and graduate student Jake Renfree (3:43.49) each joined the top 20 of NCAA times this season, setting themselves up to qualify regionally. Graduate student Tom Seitzer did the same in the 3000-meter steeplechase, moving into 15th in the NCAA with a time of 8:50.91. In the 10,000-meter run, graduate student Tyler Berg delivered the team's best performance of the day, using a personal-best time of 28:34.00 to rank inside the top 10. Finally, sophomores CJ Singleton and Daelen Ackley made their debuts in the 5000-meter run, posting respective times of 13:49.25 and 13:52.17.
The Irish women also performed well on day two, beginning with personal records from graduate student Andrea Markezich and senior Erin Strzelecki in the 10,000-meter run. With respective times of 32:36.16 and 32:44.62, the two both rank inside the nation's top five for the event. Also earning top-five spots, junior Siona Chisholm finished fourth in Raleigh with a time of 15:37.74 in the 5000-meter run and junior Sophie Novak took third at 10:07.17 in the steeplechase. In the shorter events, freshman Jordyn Borsch (400-meter dash), senior Madison Schmidt (high jump) and senior Jadin O'Brien (100-meter hurdles) placed inside the top 10.
Day three saw two more Irish women secure top-10 finishes in the 400-meter dash, as freshman Ellis Weekley (1:00.80) took fourth and sophomore Reese Sanders (1:01.94) earned ninth.
This week's Tennessee Relays will begin on Thursday in Knoxville and continue through Friday.
