April 18, 2007

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -

ACC Championship Central -- Live Results -- 2007 Performance List

The Wake Forest University track and field teams will begin their quest for ACC titles Thursday afternoon at Kehoe Track at Ludwig Field on the campus of the University of Maryland.  The annual conference championships will run Thursday through Saturday in College Park. 

The three-day meet kicks off on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. with the men's hammer competition.  Four additional field events, two running events and the first day of the multi-events are also scheduled for Thursday.  Friday begins the first full day of action beginning at 10 a.m. with the continuation of the decathlon.  The finals of five more field events will take place as well as the preliminary races for several running events.  The men's and women's steeplechase are the only finals for the running events on Friday. 

The meet will wrap up on Saturday with the finals of the remaining running events in addition to the men's and women's shot put, men's and women's triple jump and the men's pole vault.  The women's 4x400-meter relay at 4 p.m. is the final event scheduled for the meet.

The men's team is coming off an impressive showing at the 2006 ACC Outdoor Championships held at Wake Forest a year ago.  The Deacs finished in third place overall, showing extremely well in the sprints and relay events.  Michael Bingham, Willie Idlette, Brent LaRue, Mike Loyd, Kevin Marion and Eric Seely all earned multiple All-ACC honors for their finishes. 

The women's side will be looking to improve upon its 11th place result from last season.  Michelle Sikes placed third overall in the 5,000-meter run to earn the Deacs' only All-ACC award.

Entering the weekend, two Deacs are ranked in the "Dandy Dozen" in their respective events, a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event as determined by Trackwire.com.  Sikes is ranked third in the nation in the 5,000-meter run, and Bingham comes in at eighth in the 400-meter dash. 

Sikes has the fourth fastest time in the nation in the 5,000-meter run (15:47.48).  She also entered the national performance list in the 1,500-meter run after competing in the event at the Sea Relays for the first time last weekend, coming in at seventh nationally in a time of 4:19.07.

Nine other Deacons and one relay squad also appear on the nation's performance list in their respective events.  Bingham has the 11th fastest 400-meter time (46.25) while senior Eric Seely is 45th in the 200-meter dash (21.19).  Wake's 4x400-meter relay team of Bingham, Seely and freshmen Jonathan Reid and Tyler Dodds comes in at 20th entering the weekend in a time of 3:08.60.

In the field events, senior Michael Hauck's toss of 203-3 in the javelin puts him at 67th in the nation.  Competing in his first meet of the year at the Duke Invitational two weeks ago, junior Kevin Marion's leaped 24-2 1/2, good for 33rd best in the nation.

On the women's side, junior Melissa Council's time of 54.08 in the 400m is good for 36th in the nation, and junior Caitlin Chrisman appears at 42nd in the 5,000m with a time of 16:41.12.

Freshman Caroline Vaughn (100mH) and junior Michelle Duffey (400mH), who each own the school record in their respective events, also appear in the nation's top 50.  Vaughn checks in at 44th in a time of 13.73 while Duffey is 47th with a time of 1:00.39.

Additionally, senior Lindsay Neuberger's toss of 48-2 3/4 in the shot put is the 53rd longest throw of the year in the country.

The Deacons will be looking to add to their total of 12 regionally-qualifying marks/times at Maryland.  Several members of the team were unable to get a chance to do so at last weekend's Sea Ray Relays that was cut shot due to lightning and rain in the Knoxville, Tenn., area.

- WakeForestSports.com -