Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Tiger Combined Events
LaRue Wins Heptathlon at JRF Multi-Event Challenge
1/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
Jan. 27, 2007
CLEMSON, S.C. -
After starting the day in fourth place, Wake Forest sophomore Brent LaRue came back to win the heptathlon at the JRF Multi-Event Challenge hosted by Clemson on Saturday. The Kernersville, N.C., native finished the meet with 5,480 points to narrowly edge out Florida's Michael Morrison by just two points.
LaRue ran a time of 8.18 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, the first event of the day, and followed that with a best height of 4.55 meters in the pole vault. He then ran a 2:44.62 in the 1,000-meter run to win the event as well as the competition.
Also competing were Deacons Taylor Wildman (4,458 points) and Tyler Dodds (4,083 points) who finished ninth and 11th, respectively.
While LaRue, Dodds and Wildman were at Clemson, the remainder of the men's and women's track and field teams were at Liberty University to compete in the On Track Open. Six Deacons notched victories in their respective events to highlight the meet.
Deacs swept the top two spots in the men's mile run, with freshman Patrick Russell taking top honors and fellow rookie Nicholas Lepley coming in second. Russell's time of 4:22.31 was good for the victory while Lepley finished less than a half second behind in a time of 4:22.75 to come in as the runner-up.
Wake also had the top finisher in both the men's and women's 500-meter run. The event, which is not a race held at the ACC or NCAA Championships, was won by sophomore Phillip Warsaw on the men's side (1:05.78) and senior Kristen Edgar on the women's (1:19.28). Warsaw's time was a personal best and narrowly missed a facility record.
The same happened in the 800-meter run, with freshman Jonathan Reid taking the top spot for the men in a time of 1:57.42 and freshman Mary Alice Howard finishing first on the women's side in 2:22.09. Reid, who was running in the event for the first time indoors, ran a six-second PR relative to his previous outdoor personal best.
The final victory of the day came from junior Melissa Council, who finished first in the 200-meter dash in a time of 24.98. The time was good for a new facility record and was also a personal best for the Cary, N.C., native. Council had a busy day on the track where she also finished fourth in the finals of the 60-meter dash (7.90).
Also competing in the 200m was junior Michelle Duffey, who ran a time of 26.11 to come in third. The Durham, N.C., native also ran a personal-best 9.30 in the 60-meter hurdles to finish seventh.
In addition to Council, two other Deacs advanced to the finals of the 60-meter dash. Junior Ashley Spooner finished fifth in a time of 7.99 and sophomore Johanna Hawkins ran a time of 8.24 to come in eighth.
Freshman Caroline Vaughn also had a strong showing in the 60-meter hurdles where she ran a time of 9.15 to come in fourth. Competing in the long jump for the first time, she finished sixth in the event with a leap of 17 feet, 2 inches.
Competing in both throwing events, senior Lindsay Neuberger threw the shot 49-2 1/2 to finish second while she finished fourth in the weight throw with a toss of 52-1 3/4.
Also in the shot put, two Deacs finished in the top four with sophomore Boomer Peterson coming in second (47-7 3/4) and freshman Thomas Sensing finishing fourth (45-11 1/4).
The Deacs will return to action next weekend where they will be competing in the NB Armory Collegiate Invitational in New York, N.Y., on Feb 2-3.
- WakeForestSports.com -
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