Irish break records, finish second in season opener
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Assistant Sports Editor
Freshmen Jamie Volkmer and Tameisha King began their Notre Dame track careers in a big way, setting three school records between them in leading Notre Dame to a near-victory Friday.
"You've got to love it," head track and field coach Joe Piane said. "What a wonderful first meet for freshmen, and all of their performances can score at the Big East meet, which is ultimately the goal of the indoor season."
Notre Dame fell to Ball State 169 to 165, earning a second-place finish in the quadrangular meet.
Volkmer won the pole vault with a leap of 11-feet, breaking the old Notre Dame record of 10-6. She took third place in setting a new Irish standard in the triple jump with a mark of 39-3 1/2, smashing the old record of 36-9.
"I'm really excited about it," Volkmer said. "I was really nervous going into the first meet, so I'm just glad things went well."
King erased the old long jump record of 18-1 1/4 with her winning jump of 19-5.
"It was my first jump, and my first jumps are never my best jumps," King said. "I was actually hoping that I could jump 21 feet, but 19-5 is a good start."
In addition to the two record-breakers, senior high jumper Jen Engelhardt leapt 5-10 to earn a provisional qualification for the NCAA Indoors Championships in March.
Besides the field event winners, the Irish captured four individual victories in the running events.
Sophomore sprinter Liz Grow had a double victory. Grow won the 60-meter dash by one-hundredth of a second over Dorothea Game of Western Michigan, and two hundredths of a second over Ball State's Keisha Cowin. Grow crossed the finish line in 7.74 seconds. She also won the 200-meter dash, blowing the rest of the field away with her time of 24.74 seconds.
In the 600-meter run, it was yet another freshman beating out the competition.
Ana Morales, moving up from her usual sprinting events, took first place in 1 minute, 35.58 seconds.
Junior Leanne Brady had one of the best races of her career as she won the 800-meter run in 2 minutes,16.69 seconds.
The long distance events of the mile and 3000-meter run were weaker areas for the Irish Friday.
With senior All-American Alison Klemmer sitting on the sidelines for another week, and several other distance runners competing in events they might not normally run, Notre Dame couldn't get a runner to place above fifth.
"As a whole, I thought we had a lot of balance," Connelly said. "It was probably the most balanced team we've ever had.
"The addition of Tameisha King and Jamie Volkmer really helped us in events we weren't as strong in."
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 24, 2000
