Feb. 11, 2001

The University of Notre Dame men's and women's track and field teams completed their preparation for the 2001 BIG EAST Indoor Championship (Feb. 17 and 18) with some impressive performances at the Windsor Team Challenge at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Feb. 10.

The Irish coaching staff sent a limited number of competitors to Windsor in an effort to improve some of the team's qualifying marks for next weekend's BIG EAST meet. Sophomore Tameisha King (Mableton, Ga.) made good on that goal, winning three events and improving all of her top times this season. King was voted the Most Outstanding Female Athlete at the meet by the media covering the Team Challenge.

King won the 60-meter dash finals in 7.69 and also posted a 7.66 time in the preliminaries, her best time of the year after posting a 7.70 vs. Michigan State on Jan. 19. She was not the lone Irish sprinter at the finish line in the 60-meter dash. Freshman Ayesha Boyd (Spartanburg, SC) took second in the finals (7.70) while classmate Kristen Dodd (Toledo, Ohio) placed third in 7.88.

A week after committing a false start in the 60-meter hurdles at the Meyo Invitational, King rebounded to blister the field in the hurdles this weekend. She ran a 8.56 in the preliminaries (her best time of the season) and cruised to victory in the finals with a 8.62.

To cap her impressive performance on the weekend, King set a new Team Challenge meet record with a leap of 6.10 meters (20-0 1/4). Again, it was the 2000 outdoor long jump All-American's best mark of the indoor season.

Sophomore Jaime Volkmer (Kearney, Neb.) won the pole vault competition for the women's team, clearing 3.65 meters (11-11 3/4).

On the men's side, freshman Godwin Mbagwu (Petersburg, Va.) captured two individual event titles. Mbagwu won the long jump competition with a leap of 6.81 meters (22-4 1/2), then followed up with a first place finish (48-3 1/2) in the triple jump.

The Irish swept the top three spots in the men's weight throw competition, as sophomore Brian Thornburg (Titusville, Fla.) placed first (50-6 3/4), senior John Scolaro (Lake Forest, Ill.) second (48-5 1/4) and junior Derek Dyer (Huntington, Ind.) third (46-4).

Next up for both teams will be the 2001 BIG EAST Indoor Championships, held at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY, Feb. 17-18.