Notre Dame Men's Track & Field Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Alan Wasielewski 219-631-7516

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- 
WHO: Notre Dame men's track and field team
WHAT: First weekend of 2001 outdoor season
WHERE: Arizona State Invitational, Tempe, Ariz.
Stanford Invitational, Palo Alto, Calif.
Purdue Open, West Lafayette, Ind.
WHEN: Fri., March 30 - Sat., March 31

	Irish begin the 2001 outdoor season at three different venues: The
University of Notre Dame men's track and field team will split in three
directions during the first weekend of competition in the 2001 outdoor
season.
	 A limited number of Irish distance runners will travel to Palo
Alto, Calif., to compete in the Stanford Invitational. A larger, but still
limited squad will be in Tempe, Ariz., this weekend for the Arizona State
Invitational. The rest of the men's team will head to West Lafayette, Ind.,
for the Purdue Open.
	The team is hoping to carry the momentum from its first BIG EAST
outdoor team title at the 2000 conference championship into the 2001
outdoor season. The Irish placed first with 164 points last season and will
need a number of underclassmen to continue the improvement they displayed
during the indoor season for the team to repeat its BIG EAST championship.
	The Irish return a number of their top performers from last
season's outdoor team. Senior Travis Davey (St. James, NY) will compete in
the 100 meters, an event in which he finished sixth in the BIG EAST last
year and posted a top outdoor time of 10.57 in the preliminaries of the
meet.
	Cross country All-American and Verizon/CoSIDA District V Academic
All-American Pat Conway (Springfield, Va.) returns this season to run the
1,500 meters after posting a top time of 3:50.72 last year.
	Quill Redwine (San Antonio, Texas) should be among the leaders in
the high jump this season and will be joined by junior Andrew Cooper
(Granville, Ohio), who is coming off a spectacular finish to the 2001
indoor season. Cooper won the high jump competition at the BIG EAST indoor
championship and continued his strong performances by clearing 6-8 3/4 at
the Alex Wilson Invitational (March 3).
	Redwine will compete in the triple jump as well - teaming with
freshman Godwin Mbagwu (Petersburg, Va.) who posted some impressive marks
during the indoor campaign this year.
	Four-time All-American Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.) will have
the opportunity to run his signature race, the 10,000 meters, during the
outdoor season. Shay established himself as one of the top collegiate
10,000-meter specialists by finishing 10th at the U.S. Olympic Trials last
summer. He was the only runner among the top 10 in that race that still
held collegiate eligibility.
	Shay is coming off an All-American performance at the 2001 NCAA
Indoor Championship (ninth place finish in the 5,000 meters) and owns the
school record in the 10,000 meters of 28:26.91 (run at the 2000 Mt. SAC
Relays).
	Notre Dame's distance corps will feel the loss of steeplechase
specialist Luke Watson (Stillwater, Minn.) this season. The school record
holder in the event, Watson injured his meniscus while training for the
indoor season and will not return to competition for this year's outdoor
slate.
	The throws group will be led by junior Derek Dyer (Huntington,
Ind.) who owned the top shot put mark in 2000 (52-10 1/4) and also is the
top returning discus specialist (175-7). Both Mike Madigan (Butler, Pa.)
and Matt O'Brien (Bryceville, Fla.) return to the javelin competition this
year, O'Brien boasting a toss of 189-10 last season.
	List of competitors for this weekend's meets:
	Stanford Invitational: Jennifer Handley, Chrissy Kuenster, Todd
Mobley, Sean McManus and Ryan Shay. 		Arizona State Invitational:
Ayesha Boyd, Kristen Dodd, Liz Grow, Megan Johnson, Tameisha King, Kymia
Love, Jill VanWeelden, Jaime Volkmer, James Bracken, Andrew Cooper, Travis
Davey, Derek Dyer, Tom Gilbert, Mike Madigan, Godwin Mbagwu, Matt O'Brien,
Kevin Somok, Sean Zanderson.


Alan Wasielewski, Publicity Assistant
University of  Notre Dame Sports Information
112 Joyce Center, Second Floor
Notre Dame, IN 46556
(219) 631-3397/(219) 631-7941 (fax)
cell phone: 219-315-5746
E-mail: [email protected]

Excelsior!