Wake Forest Athletics
Deacs Travel North for Liberty Quad Meet
2/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
Feb. 10, 2011
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Following a terrific outing last weekend at the Virginia Tech Elite meet, the Wake Forest track and field teams will return to action this Friday afternoon at the Liberty Quad meet in Lynchburg, Virginia. All events will take place at Liberty's Tolsma Indoor Track Center.
Field events are set to begin at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, while the first track event, the women's 60 meter hurdle preliminaries, will start at 5 p.m.
The Liberty Quad is one of the smallest meets that the Deacs will compete in all season, so team scores will not be compiled. Along with Wake Forest, the women's meet will feature Liberty, James Madison, and Elon. On the men's side, only Liberty and Wake Forest will compete. Due to the small size of the meet, competition will only last through Friday evening.
The Deacs are sending a large number of runners on both sides, with 23 athletes representing the women's team and 24 suiting up for the men's team.
Freshman Mytoia Gathings enters Friday's meet with the top seed in the 60-meter dash, after running a school-record time of 7.75 seconds last weekend in Blacksburg. Myesha Barr, Nicole Castronuova, and Anneve Waithe will also join Gathings in the 60-meter dash, in addition to competing in the 200-meter dash.
Freshmen Jordyn Glaser and Erika Martin will both compete in the 200-meter dash, along with freshman Julie McCauley, who will be making her collegiate debut as a Demon Deacon.
Freshman Allison Johnson has quickly established herself as one of Wake Forest's top 400-meter runners this season, and she will look to continue her success in the event this weekend. At the Virginia Tech Elite, Johnson ran a time of 57.74 to place 11th overall.
Joining Johnson in the 400-meter dash are Glaser and the sophomore duo of Gwen and Maddy Ricco. This will mark the first time this season that the Ricco sisters have competed in the 400-meter dash, as they have been focusing on shorter distance events as part of pentathlon training.
In the mid-distance events, Molly Binder, Kim Vos, and Cate Berenato will toe the line for the Deacs in the 800-meter run, and Casey Fowler will be the lone Wake Forest runner in the 1,000-meter run.
Binder has been the top mid-distance runner for the women's squad this year, and Friday's race will mark her first 800-meter run of the season. She has raced well in the 1,000-meter run thus far, but the 800 remains her specialty event.
A handful of Deacons will race in the one mile run, with cross-country runners Anna Nosenko and Allison Homer leading the way. Fowler and senior Marley Burns will also compete in the event, along with Katy Swain, Berenato, and freshman Melanie Powers.
In the longer 5,000-meter run, Burns stands as the lone participant for the Deacs, but she holds the top time among the entire field, as she is seeded first with an entry time of 17:30.
The 60-meter hurdles will feature four Demon Deacons, with Martin seeded first among ten participants. Joining Martin will be Johnson, Maddy Ricco, and McCauley. This will mark the first time that either Johnson or McCauley has participated in the event for the Deacs this year.
The women's 4x400-meter relay team of Barr, Johnson, Gathings, and Glaser takes the top seed coming into the event, and they look to improve upon the time of 3:50.79 achieved last weekend by the relay team. Gathings will be running as a member of the relay squad for the first time of her career.
In the field events, Martin, Maddy Ricco, and junior Samantha Howell will compete in the high jump, while Madison Kocher will enter the pole vault with a third place seeding.
Junior Erin Brooks leads the way for the Deacs in both the long and triple jump, and freshman Phoebe Kershaw will join Brooks in the triple jump. Brooks is currently seeded second overall in both events.
Juniors Sarah Brobeck and Carmen Green will look to pace the Deacs in the throwing events, as they are each entered in both the shot put and the weight throw. Brobeck is seeded third overall in the shot put, while Green has a fourth place seed in the weight throw. Martin will cap off a busy day by joining Brobeck and Green in the shot put.
For the men's squad, Wake Forest football players Josh Harris and Chris Givens will race in their first event as members of the track team when they compete in the 60-meter dash. Harris and Givens were both scheduled to make their track debuts last weekend, but then pushed the date back to this weekend. Freshman Hiter Harris will join the duo in the event.
Kevin Smith will represent the Deacs in both the 200- and 400-meter dashes, while freshman Malcolm Nunley and junior Justin Bookheimer will also race in the 400-meter dash. A specialist in the 400-meter hurdles, Nunley has also found much success in the 400-meter dash, as he has achieved a season-best time of 51.27 in the event this year, in addition to running in the 4x400-meter relay.
Nunley will also represent the Deacs in the 60-meter hurdles, as he has been the top performer on the men's side in the event this season. Joining Nunley in the hurdles will be multi-event athletes Alex Hill and Scott McCullough, and freshman Spencer Carter-Carpenter.
Wake Forest will claim five of eight spots in the 800-meter run, with junior Thomas Morrison claiming the top spot. Morrison is followed by Sean Lunkenheimer, Nate Guthals, Kyle Eager, and Jake Graham.
Marcus Dillon leads the way for the Deacs in the 1,000-meter run, along with Devin Huizenga, Tom Finneran, Anthony Marois, and Garret Drogosch.
Many of these same runners will race in the one mile run, and eight of the ten runners toeing the line will be Demon Deacons. Freshman Alexander Rose enters with the top overall seed, followed by Dillon, Guthals, Marois, Drogosch, Finneran, Graham, and Huizenga.
On the track for the Deacs in the 4x400-meter relay will be Lunkenheimer, Nunley, Smith, and Hill. The Deacs have the top overall seed among five other relay teams.
A handful of Deacons will compete in the high jump, led by Terence Davis with the second overall seed. McCullough, Hill, and Aaron Larue will also join Davis in the event.
Hill and McCullough will also compete in the pole vault, along with junior Trey Blanton. Blanton will follow up pole-vaulting action with the long jump, where he will be joined by Brandon Terry.
The duo of Michael and Nate Wooten will lead the Deacs in the both the shot put and the weight throw on Friday. Michael Wooten is coming off a performance last weekend where he set a new personal best mark in the shot put with a throw of 43-11.75 (13.4 meters).
A recap of event performances will be posted on WakeForestSports.com following the conclusion of the meet on Friday evening. Live results, along with a complete schedule of events, will also be available throughout the meet.
Players Mentioned
