Wake Forest Athletics
Ushering In The New Era
1/21/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
Jan. 21, 2002
2002 marks the beginning of a new era in Wake Forest track & field. Combining the men's and women's programs under one coaching staff this year, Annie Schweitzer Bennett was named the new Director of Track & Field. In her third year as the women's track & field and women's cross country coach, Bennett now takes over the head coaching duties for all the track & field teams. She is joined by men's cross country coach, Gary Sievers, who will also serve as the Assistant Director of Track & Field, the assistant coaches John Williams (Throws), Tom Fish (Sprints, Jumps), Jill Snyder (Middle Distance) and Mike Bennett (Multi), who will all coach both teams as one.
"The athletes will be exposed to coaches with tremendous knowledge and experience," Bennett said. "I look forward to watching the athletes engage with the engergy of the staff."
A fully stocked roster compliments the combined coaching staff at Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons return two All-Americans, six NCAA qualifiers, nine ACC Champions, 13 All-ACC selections and 17 school record holders to the 2002 track & field teams from a year ago.
Heading in to the 2002 indoor season, the team is focused on the ACC Championships Feb. 15-16.
"We would obviously like to improve on our conference finish indoors," Bennett said. "For the women, we finished fifth last year and that will honestly be a challenge to finish higher than that this year. We lost 30 points of that indoor score to graduation. We have a good group back and we think that our freshman will really make an impact. On the men's side we feel as though we can finish higher than we did in the conference meet last year. We have everybody back who scored last year and they are running even better this year.
"Then we go on to the national season where our goal, as always, is to qualify both our men's and women's team for nationals," Bennett continued. "We feel comfortable that our men's DMR team will qualify for nationals, but this year our goal is to place in the top five. On our women's team it will be a group of mostly freshmen and sophomores. We lost our stud to graduation, so it will be a lot more challenging to qualify. I don't even know if that is a realistic expectation, but we're going to shoot for it anyway."
The Demon Deacons hold a similar approach to the outdoor season, as the team goals rest mainly on the ACC Championships April 19-20.
"As we move to the outdoor season, the men had a real good showing at the ACC meet last season and we would like to duplicate that and possibly expand on it," Bennett said. "The women did not have such a good meet, so the challenge for them will be to learn from our mistakes."
With a deep, talented and experienced men's team leading the way, the young women's team will follow their leadership.
"It is going to be a year where the women's side is a little bit unknown and the men's side is returning a solid class," Bennett said. "The difference is that the women are all new and young and the men are all experienced and have been in the hunt and seen what it takes to qualify and to place well. The men are really proven. They pretty much return the whole team. Time will tell with the women's team. They are a young group of individuals, a bunch of 18 and 19-year olds who need to get into battle a few times before they can really see what they can do."
One of the battle-tested members of the women's team who has emerged early on, is true freshman Anne Bersagel - who automatically qualified individually for the cross country national championships this fall.
"Anne Bersagel really emerged from the cross country team," Bennett said. "She just really challenges the team and is a natural leader."
The senior-laden men's team will be pushed though by the next group of Deacon harriers.
"We have a young group of distance runners, several of whom are high school state champions and numerous record-holders, and we feel like they are really going to make an impact this year," Bennett said. "The challenging thing for them though is that they are going to have to compete for spots against some really veteran seniors, so it will be a wonderful experience for them and there is no telling where they will take the torch after this year."
After a fall meet at the Maryland Invitational this past December in Landover, the Demon Deacons will see their first action of 2002 at the North Carolina Invitational in Chapel Hill. With the focus of the season aiming at ACC Championships and NCAA Championships, the other meets are scheduled to get everybody ready and to get as many people qualified as possible.
"We go to quite a few indoor meets so that in case we do have some inclement weather then we can use that meet as training," Bennett said. "Meets are an indicator of where we are in our training and also indicators of where we are mentally in response to competition. Every meet going in to the ACC indoors and outdoors will be an indicator of areas that we need to work on, whether it is technique, strategy and/or technical improvement in the field events. We are excited about the Penn State meet. Outdoors, we'll take a few out to Stanford like we always have, where we'll try to get some of our individual distance runners qualified that haven't already. From there the Penn Relays is always a big meet for us. We always want to compete for the prestigious Penn Relays Wheel. It is very coveted and people understand how outstanding it is to have one of those hanging in our locker room."
Distance
Coming off a second place finish at the ACC Cross Country Championships and 19th at the NCAA Championships this fall, the men's distance program could be the most highly anticipated aspect of the Wake Forest track teams this season. The women's cross country team placed sixth at the ACC Championships, but has a couple of underclassman runners who made remarkable progress throughout the course of the season and could continue to raise some eyebrows this spring.
"On the men's side we have everybody back who scored in the ACC, with the exception of Josh Buffolino, who was a senior," Bennett said. "They had a great cross country season and they are a group that really understands success and knows how to capitalize on it. We feel very confident that they are going to carry a lot of the weight of this team. Women's distance lost Sara Day to graduation, who finished in second place in the 10,000m at the NCAA Championships last year, so we're running freshmen and sophomores. We feel we have the quality, we just have to get out there and produce. We may come around slow, probably shine around late February, early March, maybe even April."
The men's Distance Medley Relay team won the ACC Championship, broke both the school and the conference record, and then finished ninth at the NCAA Championships. All four participants return this year for the Demon Deacons.
When asked about the men's distance runners this year Sievers said, "I think you have to start out with out returning ACC Champions in Nathan Sisco and Garick Hill and our ACC Championship DMR that had Sisco, Paul Singleton, Ryan Hamilton and Chris Estwanik. All of them are back so we've got that plus Ted DeVos, who was All-ACC in cross country and Singleton, who scored both at ACC indoors and outdoors last year. Also, we've got a good freshman crop and I'm excited to see how they do on the track. More than anything I'm just looking for them to get their feet wet and get adjusted to the collegiate style of competition and then go from there."
Middle Distance
All-American Nikeya Green and four-time ACC Champion Nathan Sisco headline the middle distance program this season that is similar to the distance program in that they both have the potential to be very good. Green provisionally qualified in the 800m and Sisco provisionally qualified in the 1,500m last year. Wake Forest won ACC Championships in both the men's and women's Distance Medley Relay last year and as mentioned before, all four members of the men's team are back. Courtney Lancashire and Shauna Danos return from the women's ACC Championship DMR squad and look to defend their title with the help of All-Americans Green and Carol Merritt.
Danos scored at the both in the ACC Indoor Championships and the ACC Outdoor Championships last year as a freshman. Fellow sophomore Kara Mullin returns also after scoring in the Mile last year. The Demon Deacon coaching staff is also excited about the prospects of freshman miler, Theresa Fath.
Throws
Senior throwers Cliff Neal, Alan Susi and Sandra Jenkins all hold school records and look to rewrite those this season. Add junior Tom Tymann, who has added strength in the offseason and freshman Jen Leesman, who has unlimited potential, and Wake Forest could be reaching new distances.
"On the men's side I think that we are going to have a year of vast improvement," said throws coach John Williams. "The guys are adapting well to the new system of training. If we have a few breaks, we could see some provisional marks from Alan (Susi) and Cliff (Neal). On the women's side obviously Sandra (Jenkins) is coming off an incredible year last year and I would like to see her improve upon that. I think that we should be able to get her up to that 15-Meter range. I feel real good about Jen (Leesman) coming in and making such great improvements this fall. I really expect her to make leaps and bounds this season as she becomes a little more educated in the event. She is still doing a lot of learning. She is very young and her knowledge of throwing the shot is improving so fast that I think that she will have an outstanding year. She is also learning the Hammer Throw, so hopefully that will go well."
Sprints
All-American Carol Merritt rewrote the record books at Wake Forest last year as a true freshman and looks to help the women's sprinters immensely. Ryan Hamilton, a senior sprinter for the men, appears to be all about business in his final season, as he continues to gain speed. The Demon Deacons will also gain some added zip from three-time ACC Champion John Stone, who qualified for the 2000 NCAA Championships in both the 100m and the 200m.
"We have Carol Merritt, the school record holder in the 400m and the 200m returning," Bennett said. "She scored in both last year, so we feel confident that she can do that again. In the 400m, Ryan Hamilton is back. He was a scorer in both the ACC indoor and outdoor Championships. Patrick Ladapo, who was a short sprinter, is back for us and he just keeps getting better and better each week."
The newest addition to the Demon Deacon coaching staff, Tom Fish, feels he has a lot of speed to work with at Wake Forest as the new sprints and jumps coach.
"On the women's side, we're pretty young, but I'm looking for good things out of Carol (Merritt)," said Fish, who was a Big 12 Champion sprinter at the University of Nebraska. "She placed in the ACC indoor meet last year and we want to improve on that. Everyone has had an outstanding fall, but she really sticks out. In the fall I saw big things from her. Jackie (Muscente) is a freshman with a lot of potential. We are really excited to she what all she can do - and she's another quarter hurdler.
"On the men's side Ryan Hamilton has had an outstanding fall and looks ready to really run fast for us, Fish continued. "He's a senior, so this is his last go around. Branston (Williams) has shown a lot of improvement. He's more of a quarter hurdler, so he's aiming more towards outdoors, but he's the school record holder and we want to improve on that - and I think we can.
"John Stone is coming out from football," continued Fish. "He's had a year layoff (from track) so I hope everybody's expectations aren't too high for him at first. He's a national level runner and the goal for him will be to get to the NCAAs and make it to the finals, but it may take him a few meets to get ready. On the short sprints we have Patrick Ladapo and I feel that he can score in the ACCs and can contribute on the relays for us, especially outside in the 4x100."
Jumps
A couple of sophomores for the men's team and a pair of juniors on the women's side look to surprise some people in the jumping events this year as Luke Orman and Harold Thompson aim to expand on solid rookie debuts in the Long Jump and High Jump, while Zach Hamilton, Jill Kovalcik and Elizabeth Washam are leaping to new heights in the pole vault.
"In our fall meet Luke Orman had a six-inch personal best and we feel like he is really doing a great job," Bennett said. "At this time of year you shouldn't be doing your best jumping, so that shows us that his strength work really has him where he needs to be.
"The exciting thing on the women's team is that we have brought in Cassy Richards, one of the nation's leading high schooler in the Long Jump,"Bennett continued. "We feel that she will make an immediate impact in that area. She is a diverse athlete that will also do some hurdling for us this year, as well as run the 200m. Jill Kovalcik, one of our pole vaulters, started our fall season with her best mark from outdoors, so we really feel like we're moving in the right direction."
"Luke (Orman) is looking to have a big year," Fish said. "He's doing a lot of things well. He is excited and we are expecting some big things from him. He'll definitely be a conference scorer and same with T.J. (Harold Thompson). We have two freshmen, Eli (Sunquist) and Jesse (Richert). Jesse is a high jumper and he has a lot of potential. He has shown us some good things in practice. Eli can triple jump and long jump. There is a lot to work with, with those two. The big thing with those guys is the adjustment to the collegiate level. This year's freshman class has probably trained more just this fall then they have in their entire four years combined in high school. Fabian Davis is coming back, so he'll definitely be a conference scorer. We'll have him in some relays and he will jump as well as sprint. He's real excited about coming back out."
Multi-Events
In the multi-events the Demon Deacon women will be led by Jamie Grayzer and the men by Michael Eskind. These talented, versatile athletes made tremendous progress last year and hope to have strong seasons this year. Rachel Burns also looks to make an impact this year for the women.
"We have some tremendous athletes returning in our multi-events," Bennett said. "Jamie Grayzer was a scorer in the ACC last year, so we feel that she can improve on that this year. Rachel Burns is rapidly improving and she just missed scoring at the ACCs last year. On the men's side, Michael Eskind sat out last year and he's stronger and faster than he has been. Time will tell with these two."
It is a new day for Wake Forest Track & Field - and it looks like its going to be a good one.
