Notre Dame split its squad this weekend, sending contingents to the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif., and to the Indy Relays at Butler University in Indianapolis. While the majority of the team went to the Indy Relays, distance runners Adam Currie, Sean O'Donnell, Tim Moore and Eric Morrison, and sprinters Selim Nurudeen and Dwight Ellick took to the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays, which featured competition from all over the globe."Mt. SAC is a great place for guys trying to run faster distance races, especially for guys running the 5K," said senior Eric Morrison, who found himself in one of the fastest races of the weekend. The reason for sending the smaller contingent to California was for some of the faster runners to face more elite competition to push themselves to achieve faster times. Senior Sean O'Donnell and junior Tim Moore were able to push themselves past the NCAA regional qualifying mark, with times of 14 minutes, 12.23 seconds and 14:15.06 respectively. Sprinters Nurudeen and Ellick competed in multiple events, running both Saturday and Sunday against some of the top competition in the world. At the Indy Relays, the Irish competitors continued their quest for Big East and NCAA qualifying times. A pair of runners, senior AJ Andrassy and sophomore Dan Driscoll each performed well enough to qualify for the Big East championships in their first race of the season.Competing in the steeplechase, Andrassy easily outran the Big East standard, by an unofficial time of nearly 15 seconds. With a time of 14:55 in the 5,000 meters, Driscoll also qualified for the Big East tournament.Freshman Jake Watson and sophomore Todd Ptacek finished within milliseconds of each other, coming in second and third place respectively in the 1,500 meters. Both runners clocked-in around the 3:50 mark, times good enough for Big East qualifying.The Irish will again split its squad next weekend, sending contingents to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Indiana Intercollegiate, Ypsilanti, Mich., for the Eastern Michigan Invitational and Champaign, Ill., for the Central Collegiate.
