Young but experienced Irish squad hope to improve on last year's seventh place finish
By: DAVID COOK
Sports Writer
When the women's track and field team travels to Syracuse this weekend for the Big East conference meet, it will be going with a squad that is both young and experienced.
Of the 23 qualifiers for this weekend's conference meet, 15 are returning qualifiers from last year's conference team, and only three of the 23 women are seniors.
Last year's team finished seventh at the meet, and they hope they can improve on that this year.
"Last year around this time, I went into the conference meet trying to qualify [for nationals], when now I've already qualified. And now I just want to perform well," said junior Tameisha King.
King has qualified for nationals in the long jump, and she will be competing in both the long jump and the 60-meter hurdles at the conference meet. Last year, she was in the 60-meter hurdles, the long jump, and the 60-meter dash at the Big East meet.
"I'm not as doing as many events this year. I feel I'm going to do better because of that. My goals this weekend is not only to win, but to qualify [for nationals] automatically," said King.
Junior Jamie Volkmer will be joining King in the field events. For Volkmer, this will be the third time she will travel to the conference meet.
"This year I know more about my competition, and being an upperclassman I feel more comfortable and more confident this year," said Volkmer.
Volkmer will compete in both pole vault and triple jump. After struggling a little at the beginning of the season, Volkmer took first place in both events at the Meyo Invitational.
"I am a little nervous because the first two meets were a little rough. But it's all looking uphill now," said Volkmer.
The women's sprinting corps will be sending seven runners, under the senior leadership of Liz Grow, who currently holds the 11th best time in the country in the 400-meter dash. This is the fourth year in a row Grow has made it to the conference meet, where she took second in the 400 her first two years and won it last year. Grow is also a member of the nationally ranked mile relay team that will also be competing this weekend.
Joining Grow in the sprinting events are Amanda Alvarez, Ayesha Boyd, Kristen Dodd, Tiffany Gunn, Kymia Love and Latasha Steele.
As a sophomore, Boyd in particular has had considerable success this year going into the conference meet. She took first in the 60-meter dash at the Meyo Invitational and is also part of the mile relay team.
"It seems like every meet my time has gone down faster and I've matured in so many ways. My goal [this weekend] is to get a medal in the individual races," said Boyd.
In the distance events, Notre Dame will be sending nine women to New York: Jennifer Fibuch, Kristin Flood, Jennifer Handley, Megan Johnson, Lauren King, Kerry Meagher, Ana Morales, Jill Van Weelden and Katie Wales.
Leading the distance team is the junior Handley who is competing in the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs this weekend.
This year Handley is only four seconds off a nationally qualifying time in the 3,000-meter.
"I want to run my personal best this week in the 5,000 and the 3,000. That would be ideal for me. I would love to make nationals; that would be my goal right now. Hopefully we will come out on top too," said Handley.
Rounding out the women's squad are the seven women of the field events.
Joining Volkmer and Tameisha King will be Natalie Hallett, Jennifer Kearney, Betsy Lazzeri, Emily Loomis, and Kaitlin Meiser. Emily Loomis is less than two inches from nationally qualifying in the high jump. Kearney, Lazzeri, and Meiser join Loomis in the high jump, Notre Dame's deepest event.
All Sports Stories for Friday, February 15, 2002
