Feb. 17, 2001

The University of Notre Dame men's track and field team is in fourth place after the first day of competition in the 2001 BIG EAST Indoor Track and Field Championship, which is being held in Syracuse, NY, at the Carrier Dome. Notre Dame has 19.5 points, trailing Georgetown (41), Connecticut (36) and West Virginia (21).

Outdoor 10,000-meter All-American Ryan Shay (Central Lake, Mich.) won the 5,000 meters on Saturday with a winning time of 14:10.00. It is Shay's fourth individual BIG EAST championship. The Irish senior won both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 2000 BIG EAST outdoor meet and also captured the 3,000 meters at the 1999 BIG EAST indoor championship.

Shay won of the few final races that took place on Saturday. A number of Irish athletes moved on to the finals, which will be held on Sunday, in their respective events. Cross country All-American Pat Conway (Springfield, Va.) advanced to the finals in the mile run, qualifying third in 4:16.17. Travis Davey (St. James, NY) moved the finals of the 60 meters with a time of 6.94.

Finally, James Bracken (North Andover, Mass.) qualified for the finals of the 400 meters in 49.02.

Competition continues tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 18) at 10:30 a.m.. Complete results are available at www.BIGEAST.org/sports/itrack.