Feb. 15, 2002

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Wake Forest got a good start Friday in the first day of the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships in North Carolina University's Eddie Smith Field House. The Wake Forest men's team sits in sixth place with 18 points and the Demon Deacon women's squad is in eighth place with 9.5 points.

The men's Distance Medley Relay team, consisting of Nathan Sisco (So., distance, Lebanon, NJ), Ryan Hamilton (Sr., sprints, Greenville, SC), Paul Singleton (Jr., middle distance, Greenville, SC) and Chris Estwanik (Sr., middle distance, Dublin, OH) led Demon Deacons by winning their second consecutive ACC Championship with a time of 9:52.23.

The Wake Forest women placed third in the Distance Medley Relay, earning All-ACC honors with a time of 11:55.11. That DMR team was made up by Nikeya Green (So., middle distance, Woodbridge, VA), Jackie Muscente (Fr., middle distance, Hopewell, NJ), Shauna Danos (So., middle distance, Groton, MA) and Tess Fath (Fr., distance, Brookhaven, NY).

Luke Orman (So., jumps, Goode, VA) placed sixth in the men's Long Jump with a mark of 22-10.5. Ted DeVos came in sixth place in the men's 5,000m with an indoor career-best time of 14:40.44. Jill Kovalcik (Jr., pole vault, Shiner, TX) cleared 11-3.75 to tie for seventh in the women's Pole Vault. Anne Bersagel (Fr., distance, Greeley, CO) finished seventh in the women's 5,000m with a time of 17:01.17. Tom Tymann (Jr., throws, N. Bellmore, NY) took seventh in the men's Shot Put with a career-best mark of 50-3.5.

Sisco qualified for the men's Mile Run finals by taking second place in the preliminaries with a time of 4:10.73. Michael Altieri (Sr., middle distance, Sacramento, CA) and Kevin Jones (Fr., distance, Sumter, SC) also qualified in the men's Mile, as Altieri ran a 4:12.36 for sixth place in the preliminaries and Jones took ninth with a time of 4:14.82. Carol Merritt (So., sprints, Raleigh, NC) qualified for the women's 200m finals, by finishing second in the preliminaries with a time of 23.43 and also finished fourth in the 400m preliminaries with a time of 55.88 to qualify for finals. Green qualified in the women's 800m with a fifth place time of 2:11.95 in the preliminaries. Paul Singleton qualified for the men's 800m with a time of 1:55.33 for 10th place in the preliminaries.

North Carolina leads the men with a team score of 27 and NC State leads the women with a team score of 48.5 after the first day of competition. The ACC Championships will conclude Saturday, Feb. 16. Complete results from the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships are available at tarheelblue.com.