At Invite, focus is on making individual success instead of team performance
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
Liz Grow has yet to be tested this season.
She's won every individual event in which she's been entered by wide margins. She's qualified for the NCAA indoor finals without a time that is among the fastest in the nation. In short, she hasn't faced any real competition.
This weekend, that will change.
Liz Grow, meet Foye Williams.
Williams, who competed on Canada's 2000 Olympic team, will make her annual trek to the Meyo Invitational this weekend to run against some top-level collegiate competition. Grow's fastest 400-meter time this season is 54.61 seconds.
By contrast, Williams typically runs a 52 second 400-meters.
"Foye's the one person who's really beaten Liz," said Irish sprints coach John Millar. "She gives Liz some extra motivation."
Williams, a professional runner who trains independently, usually comes down to the Meyo Invitational because of its size and the talent level, Millar said.
"She helps us by coming down her," he said. "It's an athlete that's at the next level, if you want to call her that. It's good for Liz and the others to compete against her."
Grow is also in another intriguing matchup in the 60 meter dash. The junior will run against All-American teammate Tameisha King. In the first meet of the season, King won the event in 7.7 seconds. A week later Grow ran 7.56 in the same event. Sunday will be the first time the two top athletes will compete against each other head-to-head.
However, Millar insists he's not creating a rivalry. Instead, he wants to see how his top runners respond to running the short sprint just before their individual specialties.
"I'm trying to get a feel for them racing against each other," he said. "But we use the 60 meter race to get them warmed up and prepared for their other events."
In addition to competing in the 60-meter dash, King is also entered in the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump. The sophomore has won five individual events this season.
The Irish coaching staff plans to focus more on individual performance at the ten-team Meyo Invitational. Instead of entering athletes in three or four events, the Irish plan to only enter runners in their specialty events.
"What we're looking at now is looking at individuals and giving them an opportunity to run where they are at," said Millar. "The goals for some people are to meet the Big East standards, and to see where they're at in terms of competition."
In addition to Grow and Williams, the Irish will load up the 400-meters with Kristen Dodd and Kymia Love. Dodd has proven to be a solid sprinter for the Irish thus far this season, especially in the 60 meter dash and the 200 meter dash.
Love, running her first race this season following an injury riddled campaign last year, won the 400 meters last week against Michigan State.
"With Kristen and Kymia, I'm really looking to see how they run," Millar said.
"Both are relatively new to running indoors. They're really running for experience, and I'm really looking to see how they respond. I'm really looking down the road to Big Easts and see how we can prepare for them."
In the distance events, Amanda Alvarez, Megan Johnson, Leanne Brady, and Jennifer Handley will form the distance medley relay team, marking the first time this season the Irish have fielded a relay in this event.
In addition, Johnson and Handley will both run the mile, and Brady will run the 1,000-meter run along with Megan Peterson and Ana Morales, who will be making her season debut after being injured all fall.
In the long distance events, Hilary Burn and Kari Eaton will run the 3,000-meter run, and Chrissy Kuenster and Jennifer Fibuch are entered in the 5,000-meter run.
Jamie Volkmer, Natalie Hallett, Jill Van Weelden and Bethany Wilson are all entered in the pole vault. Volkmer will also compete in the triple jump.
Freshman Jennifer Kearny, who has not lost this season in the high jump, will face tough competition for the first time in her collegiate career.
"I suspect she'll do fine in terms of her height, it will be interesting to see how she handles the higher competition," said Irish field events coach Scott Winsor.
Winsor said fifth-year senior Emily Bienko, who won the shot put last week against Michigan State, will not be competing this week because Notre Dame is in the process of checking out her eligibility.
The Meyo Invitational begins at 6 p.m. Friday with the weight throw, long jump and pole vault. At 7 p.m., the 5,000-meter is the first race scheduled, and will be followed by the distance medley relay.
The rest of the events are scheduled to begin at 10:30 Saturday morning, when the field events begin. Running events kick off at noon.
All Sports Stories for Friday, February 2, 2001
