Track and Field: Irish men, women defeat Michigan State
By: DAVID COOK
Sports Writer
Sorry Andy Lixey. Eric Morrison is for real.
Freshman 800-meter specialist Eric Morrison soundly defeated All-American Andy Lixey from Michigan State Friday night in arguably the most exciting race of Notre Dame's 96.5-61.5 dual meet victory.
Lixey, who placed first in the 1,000-meter run last week at the Missouri Invitational, was leading the pack for most of the race with Morrison right on his tail. Then in the final 200 meters, Morrison put on the afterburners and defeated Lixey by a convincing 10 meters.
Morrison finished at 1:51.86, a personal best, with Lixey finishing in third at 1:53.31. Notre Dame's Kevin Somok who barely edged out Lixey took second place.
Freshmen Dwight Ellick was also turning heads, winning the 60-meter dash in his first collegiate race. Ellick's time of 6.93 seconds qualified him for the Big East Indoor Championships in late February.
"I was real pleased with Dwight," said Irish sprints coach John Millar. "To come out after a week of practice and run as well as he did was really encouraging, and hopefully we can continue to improve on that."
Also contributing to the Irish victory were two returning starters, Tom Gilbert and Quill Redwine. Both athletes were not able to compete in the triangular meet last week, but Gilbert came back and won both the long jump and the 200-meter dash. He won the long jump with a distance of 23 feet 5 inches and the 200-meter dash in 22.18.
Redwine, who is still recovering from pain in his legs, won the triple jump with a distance of 46 feet 4 inches. He also took third in the high jump right behind freshman Ryan Mineburg, who jumped 6-7.
Luke Watson proved once again why he is an All-American, decisively winning the mile run with a time of 4:10.06, a full 3 seconds in front of second place Sean Zanderson. Notre Dame took the first four spots in the mile run.
Rounding off Notre Dame's impressive showing was Nick Setta's victory in the 500-meter run. Setta ran a 1:04.62, a full second better than his time last week when he qualified for the Big East championships.
"Setta improved on where he was last week," said Millar. "He really showed his ability in that event. It really goes well for us later on in the year when we get to the Big East championships."
Overall, the men's track and field team posted a strong 10 wins in 15 events against the potent Michigan State team.
The Notre Dame women's team was also flexing its muscles, winning the dual meet against Michigan State, 94.5-62.5.
The strong sprinting contingent consisting of Ayesha Boyd, Kymia Love, Kristen Dodd, and Liz Grow combined for a total 4 victories and 29 points in the meet.
"We have a real solid nucleus with Liz, Ayesha, Kristen and Kymia," said Millar. "It allows us the luxury of allowing the freshmen to develop and not have to feel like they have to go out there and have the pressure to perform."
Millar is referring to Latasha Steele, Tricia Floyd, and Tiffani Gunn who continue to show improvement and add strength to the Irish sprinting corps. For the second week in a row, Gunn has won the 60-meter hurdles.
Distance runner Jennifer Handley was in top form on Friday, decisively winning the 3000-meter run with a time 9:54.30. She finished a full 15 seconds in front of second place Jennifer Fibuch.
Freshman Lauren King won the 800-meter run in 2:13.35 with classmate Kerry Meagher finishing in third less than a second behind a Spartan runner.
Finally, the women's field athletes were in top form. Jennifer Kearney took first place in the high jump with Kim Utterson and Kaitlin Meiser finishing in second and third. Jill VanWeelden won the pole vault, and Jamie Volkmer won the women's triple jump.
Next week is the highly competitive Meyo Invitational, and marks the beginning of the meat of the indoor track and field season. These wins on Friday provide a strong springboard for the track and field teams as they get ready for this coming Friday's invitational.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 28, 2002
