MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD: Freshmen have solid showing in conference meet
By DAVE COOK
Sports Writer
In most college sports, it is usually a senior who makes the biggest impact on the team. Basketball has Ryan Humphrey. Football has Anthony Weaver.
But for the Notre Dame men's track and field team it was the freshmen who made perhaps the biggest impact in this past weekend's Big East Conference meet.
Freshmen Dwight Ellick, Selim Nurudeen, Eric Morrison and Chris Staron combined for a total of 27 of Notre Dame's 101.75 points to lead the Irish to a third place finish at the Big East Conference meet.
Sprinter Ellick had probably the most impressive performance of the freshmen, taking third place in both the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter dash.
"Dwight Ellick was ranked third, got third. We got points wherever we could get them," said head coach Joe Piane.
"I felt that I did pretty good. I went through a rough atmosphere. I wasn't worried about being a freshman or anything like that. I have three more years to get first," said Ellick.
Ellick has been making consistent improvement so far this season. In the 60-meter dash, he has taken first in a dual meet against Michigan State and fourth at the Meyo Invitational.
"I was right in the area where I was expecting myself to be. I have areas to improve, so I come back, practice, and just get stronger and better," said Ellick.
Nurudeen and Morrison were also in top form this weekend. Nurudeen took third in the 60-meter hurdles and Morrison took fifth in the 800-meter run and was on the eighth place 4x800-meter relay team.
Morrison took seventh in the preliminaries of the 800, then was able to improve in the finals, where the times were a little bit slower than he is used to.
"The time itself was slow, only because everyone needed a new set of kick returns [from the preliminary race]. In the last 100 meters [in the 800] the guy steps on the rail, and we got helped there," said Piane.
Following up the freshman performances was Staron in the high jump. Staron, whose best jump this year had been 6 feet, 4 inches going into the Big East meet, jumped 6-7 en route to a third place finish. He out jumped senior Quill Redwine who had been consistently finishing in front of Staron in previous meets.
The only victories for the Irish in the Big East meet came from senior Ryan Shay who won both the 3,000-meter run and the 5,000-meter run. Shay did not see the strongest competition on the weekend, as he won the 3,000 by three seconds and the 5,000 by more than four seconds.
Classmate Luke Watson did not have the weekend he wanted to have.
"It wasn't a bad weekend for me, but it wasn't good either. I think I could have done better in both events [the 3000-meter and the mile]. Primarily on execution and strategy, because in Big East races in distance races its all about strategy. I didn't execute as well as I could have," said Watson.
Watson still took second in the 3000 behind Shay and third in the mile run, .04 seconds behind second place Ryan Hayden of Villanova.
Taking first place at the meet was Connecticut, with Villanova finishing in second. Defending champion Georgetown finished a disappointing fourth place.
"I think the men were probably disappointed [with the third-place finish]. We scored almost everywhere where we could," said Piane.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, February 19, 2002
