April 15, 2004

The Wake Forest track and field team will compete this weekend at the 2004 Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at the University of North Carolina's Belk Track at Fetzer Field. Events will begin Friday at 9:30 a.m. and continue through Saturday evening with the awards presentation at approximately 6:20 p.m. Admission to the championships is free for all fans.

At last year's outdoor championships, the Florida State men captured their second consecutive title while the North Carolina women took home their third straight crown. Wake Forest will be looking for its first ever title in both the men's and women's competition.

The Demon Deacon men are led by regional qualifiers Michael Loyd and Brad Wharton. Loyd was an NCAA provisional qualifier in the indoor 60m hurdles earlier this year, and garnered All-ACC honors in that same event. Now during the outdoor season, the Winston-Salem native is a two-time regional qualifier in the 110m hurdles. Wharton, a sophomore from Vernon, Texas, placed fourth in the 1,500m run at the Yellow Jacket Invitational with a regional-qualifying time of 3:46.54.

On the women's side, Wake Forest brings four regional-qualifiers to the ACC Championships this weekend. Last weekend at the Sea Ray Relays, Carol Lewis recorded a season-best time of 54.60 in the 400m dash. Lewis has also competed in the 100m and 200m dashes throughout the outdoor season.

Junior Anna Sherman has also had a strong season for the Deacs. Sherman is Wake Forest's only athlete to record regional qualifying marks in two different events. The West Essex, NJ native took home the 1,500m title at the Yellow Jacket Invitational and placed second in the 800m run at the Raleigh Relays.

Also leading the Demon Deacons into ACC's will be Anne Bersagel and Lindsay Neuberger. Bersagel recorded a fifth-place finish in the 5,000m run at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 16:24.57 while Neuberger looks to follow up on her indoor All-ACC honors in the shot put with a strong showing in that event this weekend.

Complete results from the 2004 ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships can be found at www.theacc.com