Track and Field: Women win, men take third
By: DAVID COOK
Sports Writer
Just how strong is Liz Grow this year?
Liz Grow, a senior, was suffering from a stress fracture in her right foot right before winter break because of a string of intense workouts.
Then she came back for the first Notre Dame home meet and won both the 500-meter run and the 200-meter dash, leading the Irish to a victory with a total of 136 points Friday night. Ball State finished second with 109.5 points and Western Michigan was third with 86.5 points.
If that's not impressive enough, consider that before this race Grow had never run in anything above 400 meters. Irish assistant coach John Millar put her in the 500-meter run so that she could take it easy on the foot. But Grow had different expectations from herself.
"I knew I could win," said Grow. "There was one other girl from Western Michigan, I knew if I could cut her off, I knew that I could win if I just maintained [my pace]."
Last year in the NCAA outdoor championships, Grow had taken 13th place overall in the 400-meter dash. This year, she has set her expectations even higher.
"I wasn't happy with last year at all actually," said Grow. "It was just a long season for me. But this year, every year obviously, I expect myself to win."
Grow was not the only one with success for the women's track and field team. The team posted an impressive 11 first place finishes in 16 total events.
In other sprinting events, Ayesha Boyd and Kristen Dodd enjoyed considerable success. Boyd took first in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.58 seconds and third in the 400 meter dash, while Dodd took third place in the 60-meter and second in the 200-meter dash.
In the women's pole vault, Notre Dame took the top three places. Jill VanWeelden took first with a height 11-6. Jaime Volkmer vaulted the same height, but she had more faults. Natalie Hallett was in third with a height of 10-6.
The men's team was led to a third place by the surprising leadership of two freshmen. Eric Morrisson, who took first place in the 800-meter run even though he was running in the second heat. His time of 1:54.29 proved to be better than any runner in the first heat.
"The 800 has always been my strongest race," said Morrisson. "It's a relief to finally have a good race. I feel like I've had a pretty disappointing cross country season, so this is my first race that I consider to be a good race."
Fellow freshman Selim Nurudeen also claimed his first home collegiate victory Friday night, taking first place in the 60-meter hurdles. Nurudeen finished in a time of 8.11 seconds. Sophomore Napoleon Suarez, running in the second heat of the race, took second with a time of 8.30 seconds.
Western Michigan won the meet (123.5 points) with Ball State finishing second (111). Notre Dame earned 103.5 points.
Senior Luke Watson also claimed a first place finish in the 3000 meter run with a personal best 8:14.52, less than 4 seconds off the NCAA provisional qualifying time. Unfortunately for Watson, he had to run the final three laps with no competition.
The fourth victory was claimed by the men's 4x440 relay team. The team won the race with a time of 3:18.70, a commanding two-second lead in front of second place Western Michigan.
Unfortunately for the Irish, they were without several top performers in high jumper Quill Redwine and distance runners Mark Striowski and Pat Conway. Junior sprinter and jumper Tom Gilbert was also not in action Friday night.
The men's and women's track and field team will be in action again this Friday night in a dual meet against Michigan State. Events start at 6 p.m. on Meyo Field.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 21, 2002
