June 9, 2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Add National Champion to the impressive resume of Michelle Sikes. The senior capped a brilliant season by winning the national championship in the 5,000-meter run on Friday, June 8 at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Sikes clocked a 15:16.76, smashing her own Wake Forest record of 15:47.48 and also set a new NCAA meet record, breaking Stanford's Lauren Fleshman's time of 15:24.06 by more than seven seconds.

Sikes won the same event at the NCAA Championships that her coach, Annie Bennett, won 20 years earlier. Running in her hometown of Baton Rouge (La.), Bennett won the 5,000-meters in a time of 15:42.

Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego, who was vying for an unprecedented fifth national title in one season, finished second with a 15:24.22. Kipyego won the 10,000-meter run yesterday.

The Lakewood, Ohio native became the first Wake Forest female to win a national title in track, including both indoor and outdoor and is the first Demon Deacon to claim a title in the sport since Andy Bloom won the discus throw and shot put in 1996.

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, opted to concentrate solely on the 5,000 this week.

Wake Forest junior Michael Bingham qualified for the finals in the 400-meter after running a 45.63 to finish second in one of two semifinal heats and third overall. Bingham also broke his own record of 46.13, which he set last year. The final for the 400 is slated for 10:37 PT on the fourth and final day of the Outdoor Championships.