May 29, 2002

The 2002 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships began on Wednesday afternoon at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and the University of Notre Dame track and field team enjoyed a successful first day.

Cross country and indoor track All-American Luke Watson began his quest for the 3,000-meter steeplechase title with an impressive qualifying effort on Wednesday. Watson will enter the final race on Friday at 9:45 p.m. with the seventh seed, but his prelim time ended up as the fourth fastest in the field. His 8:37.99 effort is behind Arkansas' Dan Lincoln (8:36.50), Eastern Michigan's Jordan Diseltes (8:37.96) and Bahsar Ibrahim (8:37.98) from UTEP.

This is the second time in Watson's career that the Stillwater, Minn., native has competed in the national championship steeplechase competition. He missed the 2001 season due to a knee injury, but he qualified for the event in 2000 (Watson did not advance to the final race). The top eight from Friday's race will earn automatic All-America honors. Watson also is set to compete in the 5,000 meters on Saturday.

The women's 4x100 relay team also competed on Wednesday afternoon in the preliminaries, but the results have not yet been posted on the official championship website.