Wake Forest Athletics
Deacons Ready For Challenge At NCAA Championships
6/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
June 4, 2007
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Members of the Wake Forest men's and women's track and field teams are heading to Sacramento, Calif., this week for the 2007 NCAA Championships hosted by Sacramento State University. The meet runs June 6-9 and will have three Deacon individuals and one relay team in competition.
Senior Michelle Sikes and the men's 4x400-meter relay team of Michael Bingham, Jonathan Reid, Phillip Warsaw and Eric Seely earned automatic berths into the championships by virtue of their top five finishes at the NCAA East Regional Championships. Based upon their strong performances throughout the outdoor season, Bingham (400m) and Lindsay Neuberger (shot put) received at-large nods into the meet.
Sikes, who qualified for national meet in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, will focus on only the 5,000 at the NCAA Championships where she was an All-American in 2006 on the same track. Sikes qualified for the NCAA Championships by winning the 5,000m crown at the Regional Championships in a time of 15:52.55, the next closest competitor coming in 17 seconds after.
Sikes enters the weekend with the third-fastest 5k time in the nation, a blazing mark of 15:47.48 that she ran at the Stanford Invitational on March 30. The time also broke the school record in the event. The Lakewood, Ohio, native will be looking to close out her Wake Forest career with her fourth overall track All-America award and third this year. Her previous two came in the 3,000m and 5,000m at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.
Joining Sikes on the women's side of the competition will be senior Lindsay Neuberger. The Virginia Beach, Va., native qualified for the NCAA Championships on the strength of her mammoth toss at the ACC Championships on April 21. Neuberger let loose a heave of 52-01 at the conference meet to break the school record and give her third place result in the event. The mark is the 18th best performance in the event in the nation this season entering the meet.
The men's 4x400m relay team saved its best performance of the season for exactly the right time, running a time of 3:07.42 at the NCAA East Regional Championships. The result gave them the third place regional finish and the automatic entry into the NCAA Championships. The team's time is the 15th fastest in the nation this season.
Bingham will also compete as an individual at the NCAA Championships, running in the 400m. While he didn't have his best race in the finals at the East Regional Championships, the Burlington, N.C., native still holds the seventh best time in the nation (45.62) from the Georgia Tech Invitational on May 12 and earned an at-large selection based on that performance. The school record holder in the event, Bingham will be looking for his first All-America award.
Players Mentioned
