Watson, Shay set new Notre Dame records
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Senior Sports Writer
It was a record-breaking California adventure this weekend for Irish seniors Luke Watson and Ryan Shay.
The team's top two distance runners both set school records in their respective events at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Shay's 13 minute, 35.08 second mark in the 5,000 meters placed him ninth overall and third among collegiate runners and shattered the 13:44.92 mark Watson set in the event at Stanford earlier this season.
"That's a really good time," said Irish head coach Joe Piane. "It shattered the record. It shattered the record that was shattered by Luke earlier in the year. Luke kind of destroyed Ryan's record. Those two have dropped that 5,000-meter record by 17 seconds this year. That's really significant."
In his own specialty event, the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Watson finished fourth, second among collegiate runners, with a time of 8:38.20, breaking his own school record in the process.
Shay, who crossed the mile in 16th place, ran a strategic race as he topped his career-best mark by nearly 17 seconds.
"I heard my split at the mile [4:19] and I just started picking people off and trying to keep consistent running each lap at 65 or close to it," Shay said. "I felt pretty good and ran after it, and out-leaned a guy at the end."
In the steeplechase, Watson was slowed down by running in a tight pack of runners, which forced him to plant his foot on the barriers rather than hurdle them. Still, he moved up from sixth-place to fourth over the final lap.
"I think he can go a lot faster than that," Shay said of Watson, his roommate. "That was only his second steeplechase of the season. I don't know how much barrier work he's done in practice. I don't think a whole lot. Once he gets a little more of that under his belt, he's a contender to win the national title."
Three other distance runners made the trip out to California. Sophomore Kevin Somok and senior Pat Conway competed in the 1,500 meters. Somok finished third in his heat in a time of 3:49.31 while Conway, who was struggling with illness, placed 11th in 3:58.67.
Sophomore Todd Mobley, who provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships earlier this season at Stanford in the 10,000 meters, ran the event at Mt. SAC as well, but failed to finish.
"That was unfortunate. He was running great, right up with a group that was running well enough to get him qualified for nationals," Shay said. "Right around 5K you could just tell there was a change in his facial expression. He was pretty upset about that. It's just tough to watch someone run more than half the race like that and then have to drop out."
Also making the trip to California was thrower Derek Dyer, high-jumper Quill Redwine and hurdler Selim Nurudeen. They competed at the Pomona Invitational on Friday and at Mt. SAC Sunday.
Nurudeen placed 11th in the 400-meter hurdles and 12th in the 110-meter hurdles at Pomona before adding a second-place finish in his heat of the 110-hurdles at Mt. SAC. His speed and technique were impressive at both meets, but he was slowed as he hit hurdles both days.
"At Pomona in the 400-hurdles he was really running well but he clobbered the 10th hurdle and had to fight just to stay up on his feet," sprints coach John Millar said of Nurudeen's 55.05 second mark at Pomona. "His time wasn't very good but he really looked like he was running well up until that point."
Redwine finished in a tie for fourth-place in the high jump with a leap of 6-8 3/4 at Pomona and sat out the Mt. SAC meet.
"He's progressively getting better and better with his heights each week," field events coach Scott Windsor said. "We adjusted his approach just two days before they left, so he adjusted very well. He's coming along really well."
Dyer finished 15th in the discus with a throw of 158-5 and 14th in the shot put at 48-5 1/2 at Pomona and added a throw of 165-feet at Mt. SAC. Windsor was impressed with Dyer's consistency in the discus, but pointed out that he still has work to do.
"He had between a 170 and 175 discus warm-up and he gets to the competition and it's like he tightens up," Windsor said. "He just needs to learn how to relax and let his body do what it's trained to do and it'll do it."
While the team's top runners traveled to California, the rest of the team competed at the Indy Invitational. The highlight of the nighttime meet, held in frigid weather and 4-meter-per-second winds, was a first-place finish by senior William "Red" Croker in the 400 meters.
"I was real excited for Red," Millar said of Croker, who ran a time of 48.84 seconds. "We kind of joked about the fact that he hadn't broken 50 but yet he could run a relay leg in 47. To go out and run as well as he did under less than ideal conditions was pretty good."
Croker was followed by freshman Trevor McClain, who finished fourth in 49.31 seconds and senior Nick Saracco, who took sixth in 49.54 seconds. Those three, along with senior Mike Mansaur, who took the weekend off, comprise the Irish 4x400-relay team.
Also posting impressive sprint marks at Indianapolis were sophomore Ryan Hurd, who finished third in the 200 meters with a 22.03 second mark, and classmate Mark Barber, who finished second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.16 seconds and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a career-best 54.39 seconds.
In other running events, Notre Dame got points from sophomore Tom Lennon, who finished fifth in the 1,500 and sophomore Jules Vandersarl, who took sixth in the 100 meters with a time of 11.48 seconds.
In the field events, the Irish got strong efforts from freshman high-jumper Chris Staron and sophomore thrower Juan Alba.
Staron finished tied for fourth place in the high jump, clearing 6-foot-6.
Windsor said that mark may be misleading.
"Track and field is one of those funny sports," Windsor said. "All you see is 6-6. His attempts at 6-8 were very good. He looked very good at it and was getting very good height, he just didn't make it. That tells me physically he's coming along."
Alba took fifth in the discus with a throw of 155-1 and ninth in the hammer with a toss of 162-2. Windsor found Alba's consistency encouraging.
"I couldn't ask for more from Juan," Windsor said. "He's doing a great job.
He's getting better and better and better in the hammer, improving every week. One of these days I think he's going to jump up 10 feet. In the discus, he's been very consistent."
The Irish split up again this weekend, sending the top runners to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Drake Relays while the rest of the team travels to a meet at Purdue.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 23, 2002
