On Friday and Saturday, the Notre Dame track and field team competed in Ann Arbor at the Michigan Invitational. The weekend brought in several top teams from throughout the Great Lakes region, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana State.
The women’s squad collected victories in three events. Senior Alaina Brady posted a winning long jump of 5.85 meters. Last season’s event winner in Ann Arbor, junior Kendall Burgess, followed Brady closely with a 5.66 this year, finishing third.
In the high jump, a Notre Dame senior again topped the leaderboard. Madison Schmidt won the event for a second consecutive year, improving upon her previous distance from 1.71 to 1.76. Senior Jadin O’Brien followed her for a second straight year in fourth place.
The 4x400 relay saw the Irish place both squads inside the top six. Senior Bridget Lalonde, sophomores Reese Sanders and Remy Finn and freshman Jordyn Borsch put forth a balanced effort to win the event in 3:45.18.
On the men’s side, graduate student Joey Zayszly stole the show with a heptathlon victory. The Oklahoma transfer set a personal best with 5,167 points, pulling away with outright wins in the 60-meter and pole vault heptathlon events.
Another personal record fell with Daelen Ackley’s performance in the mile. One of four runners to break four minutes, the dynamic sophomore earned a fourth-place finish in 3:58.81.
Returning to field events, graduate student Michael Shoaf added another solid performance to his impressive Irish career. The two-time ACC champion shot putter narrowly missed a winning throw in Ann Arbor. Still, his 19.11-meter result earned him second place, matching his NCAAs distance from last season. Shoaf also cracked the top five in the weight throw (19.94m).
This weekend, the Irish will return to South Bend for the Meyo Invitational. The competition will run from 4 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Saturday.
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