Shay paces Irish to second-place finish at home meet
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Sports Editor
Ryan Shay had one heck of a workout Saturday afternoon.
Competing in both the 1,500-meters and 3,000-meters at the Spring Opener, Shay won the 5,000 and placed third in the 3,000 to lead the Irish to a second-place overall finish.
Notre Dame ended the day with 174 points, behind Western Michigan's 202 and ahead of Miami (Ohio)'s 132 and Michigan State's 119.
In his first race, Shay was the first Irish runner across the line in the 1,500.
His time of 3:58.27 was less than half a second behind winner Andy Lixey of Michigan State. Pat Conway, Notre Dame's best miler during the indoor season, took 13th, finishing in 4:06.9 in his first meet since coming back from a knee injury.
"I felt pretty good going into it. I just wanted to get in and compete. I think the problems I've had in the past with the mile and the 1,500 were more mental than anything else. I just told myself that that whole meet Saturday was going to serve as a workout for me."
In the 5,000 meters, Shay led the entire race. Running into a strong headwind nearly half the race, he finished in 14:43.51, two seconds ahead of Brian Godsey of Miami.
"I really don't like to think of that guy as competition, but he stuck with me," Shay said. "I did all the work into the wind, it was very windy. He just drafted off me all day. But I was pretty confident that he wasn't going to go by me.
Another athlete who excelled for the Irish on Saturday was sprinter Travis Davey. Davey took first in the 100 meters, while finishing second in the 200-meters and leading off Notre Dame's second-place 4x100 meter relay team.
His time of 11.07 seconds eclipsed second-place Josh Culver of Western Michigan by more than three tenths of a second.
"He was real solid," Irish sprints coach said of Davey, who finished .2 seconds behind Culver in the 200. "I think the 200, between the wind and probably being a little tired, he didn't look as strong. But I think he was smart in not pressing and taking any chances."
The relay team of Davey, William "Red" Croker, Marton Gyulai and Godwin Mbagwu finished in 41.83 seconds, .02 seconds behind Western Michigan. Millar was impressed with his team's performance running without top sprinter Tom Gilbert, who was out with a hamstring injury.
"I think that we had some good hand-offs and they held their own," Millar said. "It came down to a close finish."
The Irish received a strong performance in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles from freshman Napoleon Suarez, who took first in 53.75 seconds.
"I was really pleased with Napoleon," Millar said. "He really seems to be coming along and getting comfortable with the 400 hurdles."
In the field events, the Irish excelled in the javelin, an area that had been a weakness until recently. Senior Matt O'Brien's throw of 190 feet, 10 inches topped teammate Mike Madigan's second-place mark.
"Those guys threw exceptionally well. They finally broke out," said Irish field events coach Scott Winsor. "Matt had been struggling for a little while. What we did was we slowed down his approach. He was trying to use speed instead of his arm strength. Mike has been improving every week in practice."
Junior Quill Redwine, who underwent knee surgery less than two months ago, excelled in the high jump for the second week in a row, taking first with a leap of 6-10 3/4. Redwine nearly cleared the NCAA-qualifying mark of 7-1.
"He had two decent attempts at 7-1," Winsor said. "He's jumping really well right now."
The Irish also got a strong performance from junior Josh Heck in the pole vault, who took second overall, clearing a mark of 15-6 to finish ahead of Michigan State's Matt Deering, who cleared the same height but had more misses.
"Josh I thought competed extremely well," Winsor said. "It was extremely windy. He beat out a very good Michigan State pole vaulter. I look to him to kind of be the leader in that event, to show by example. He did that."
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 9, 2001
