Wake Forest University
NCAA Indoor Championships
Michael Bingham Wins 400-Meter National Title
3/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
March 14, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Senior Michael Bingham turned in the fastest time in the world this year on his way to winning the 400-meter national title Saturday evening at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on the campus of Texas A&M.
Bingham ran a time of 45.69, which was two-hundredths of a second faster than Gil Roberts of Texas Tech, to claim his first national title and become just the third Demon Deacon to earn the honor.
The Burlington, N.C., native broke from lane five in the first heat and took a slight lead over Justin Oliver of Texas A&M after the first 200-meters. He then stretched his lead over the next 100-meters and went on to win the heat by almost a full second.
He then had to wait and see if his time would hold up through the second heat. Roberts, who came into the meet with the top qualifying time of 46.08, was two-hundredths of a second faster than Bingham over his first 200-meters but he couldn't keep that pace down the stretch.
"Michael ran an awesome race today," said Wake Forest assistant coach Scott Hall. "He is an experienced runner and he executed the race we talked about. He wanted to get through the first 200-meters with the lead in his heat and then he was strong enough to turn it over the last 200-meters. He worked really hard this winter on his training and it paid off today."
Both Bingham and Roberts' times surpassed Johan Wissman's time of 45.89, which he ran at the European Championships last week, for the fastest indoor 400-meter time this year.
Bingham joins former Olympian Andy Bloom and Michele Sikes as the only Demon Deacons to bring home national titles. Bloom won both the shot put and the discus during the outdoor season in 1996 and Sikes took the 5,000-meter national title during the outdoor meet in 2007.
This was Bingham's third All-American honors in the 400-meter dash as his time of 45.69 smashed his previous personal-best and school-record time of 46.12. He ran that time during the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships where he had finished fourth.
In the conclusion of the heptathlon, junior Brent LaRue took 13th overall in the event but finished as the eighth-best American athlete to earn All-America honors by the coaches association.
He started the day by running an 8.16 in the 60-meter hurdles and then posted a personal-best of 15-9 in the pole vault. He capped the event with a time of 2:49.03 in the 1,000-meter run to finish with 4,926 points.
This was LaRue's first All-America honors in the heptathlon as he earned his second All-ACC honors this season as well.
Players Mentioned
