June 7, 2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Senior Michelle Sikes, vying to become Wake Forest's first NCAA champion in more than 10 years, will run in the 5,000-meter finals here Friday at the NCAA Track and Field Championships.

Sikes advanced to the finals after breezing to a first-place finish in one of two preliminary heats late Wednesday. She finished first with a time of 16:16:31 at the Sacramento State University track facility. Sikes, the ACC champion in both the 5,000- and 10,000-meters, has opted to concentrate solely on the 5,000 this week. Sikes owns the Wake Forest school record in the event at 15:47.48.

Sikes is joined at the NCAA Championships this week by Demon Deacons Michael Bingham (men's 400m), Lindsey Neuberger (women's shot put) and the men's 4x400-meter relay team.

Bingham will run in the semifinals of the 400-meters on Friday after finishing second in Wednesday's preliminaries with a time of 46:49. The top performers in Friday's semifinals will compete in the finals on Saturday.

The Wake Forest 4x400 relay team will run today (Thursday) in one of two semifinal heats with the finals set for Saturday. The relay team consists of Bingham, senior Eric Seely, freshman Jon Reid and sophomore Philip Warsaw.

Neuberger begins competition today in the preliminary round of the women's shot put. The finals are set for Saturday.

CBS will televise part of the championships on Saturday from 1-3 p.m.