April 1, 2007

ATLANTA -

The Wake Forest men's and women's track and field teams dispersed to Palo Alto, Calif., and Atlanta over the weekend for the Stanford and Yellow Jacket Invitationals.  The teams combined to garner seven regional qualifying marks, highlighted by a victory and new school record in the 5,000-meter run by senior Michelle Sikes.

Competing in her first meet of the outdoor season at the prestigious Stanford Invite, Sikes ran a blazing time of 15:47.48 in the 5,000m to win the race and easily surpass the regional standard of 16:52.00.  The time also broke the previous school record in the event previously held by Anne Bersagel (16:02.04) and put Sikes in first on the national performance list.

Junior Caitlin Chrisman will also be headed to the regional championships after running a time of 16:41.12 in the same event.  The Carbondale, Ill., native's time put her in 12th place overall.

Junior Melissa Council established a new school record as well, running a time of 54.08 in the 400-meter dash at the Yellow Jacket Invite to break the old record of 54.60 held by Carol Merritt.  The result put Council in second place in the race and gave her a regionally-qualifying time in the event.

Freshman Caroline Vaughn continued her strong freshman campaign by rebreaking the school record in the 100-meter hurdles that she set last week at the Wake Forest Open.  Her time of 13.73 in Atlanta was good for third place in the race, another regional mark and shaved a full tenth of a second off her previous best time from a week ago.

The 4x400-meter relay team of junior Michelle Duffey, Council and freshmen Alexandra Gove and Nicole Castronuova had an outstanding day on the track, setting a new Wake Forest record but barely missing a regionally-qualifying time in the event, falling just short of the 3:42.00 standard.  The team ran a time of 3:42.16 in the event which shattered the previous best time of 3:46.56 held by Shauna Danos, Merritt, Summer Shaw and Nikeya Green from 2001.

Freshman Alexandra Gove finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles, running a time of 1:01.83 while Vaughn finished seventh in a time of 1:02.67.

On the men's side, senior Eric Seely ran his first regional mark of the outdoor season, finishing the 200-meter dash in 21.19.  The time was good for ninth overall in the race and qualified him for the NCAA East Regional Championships.

The men's team also got a regional mark in the 4x400-meter relay.  The group consisting of junior Michael Bingham, freshman Jonathan Reid, Seely and freshman Tyler Dodds ran a time of 3:08.60 to finish third overall and qualify for the regional meet.

The Deacs got top-eight finishes from senior Matthew Owen in the 1,500-meter run (7th, 3:52.20), junior Oderah Nwaeze in the long jump (4th, 22-5 1/4), freshman Thomas Sensing in the shot put (8th, 51-8 1/4) and Dodds in the javelin (5th, 165-6).

Following this weekend's meets, the Deacs will head to Austin, Texas, and Durham, N.C., for the Texas Relays and Duke Invitational next weekend.

- WakeForestSports.com -