Wake Forest Athletics
Deacons Travel to Blacksburg for Virginia Tech Elite Meet
2/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
Feb. 3, 2011
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After a solid outing by the multi-event athletes last weekend at the JRF Combined Events Invitational in Clemson, S.C., the Wake Forest men's and women's track and field teams will return to Blacksburg, V.A., for the Virginia Tech Elite Meet on Friday and Saturday.
Only four of Wake's athletes (Alex Hill, Scott McCullough, Maddy Ricco and Erika Martin) competed last weekend, but the Deacons will field a wide variety of participants this weekend, including several who will be making their collegiate debuts.
The trio of Mytoia Gathings, Myesha Barr and Nicole Castronuova are on track to run in the 60m dash. Gathings will make another push to break the school record in the event, a mark that she narrowly missed just two weeks ago. In addition to the 60m dash, Gathings will also represent the Deacs in the 200m dash open, while Castronuova will participate in the 400m dash invitational.
Freshman Allison Johnson will be making her first collegiate start in the 400m dash open. She previously finished ninth in the 600m run at the Hokie Invitational on January 21. Fellow freshmen Nicole Irving and Melanie Powers are scheduled to run in the 3,000m race. It will be Irving's first start in the event, while Powers is coming off a ninth-place finish at the Hokie Invitational.
Dina Nosenko and her sister Anna Nosenko will be running together for the first time this season in the 3,000m run. The two share the lowest seed time in the event at 9:29.00. Dina also holds the lowest seed time in the one mile run at 4:43.50, and will be one of two Deacons in that event alongside Casey Fowler.
Junior Erin Brooks and freshman Phoebe Kershaw will compete in both the long jump and the triple jump for Wake. Brooks has notched finishes of sixth and 16th in the long jump so far this season, and Kershaw placed 29th in the same event two weeks ago. Neither has competed in the triple jump this year.
In the throwing events, Wake Forest will be represented by Sarah Brobeck (shot put) and Carmen Green (weight throw). Brobeck has had a pair of top-15 finishes in the shot put this season, and Green has finished 15th and 18th in her two weight throw competitions.
On the men's side, a pair of cross-sport athletes will be making their debuts in the 60m dash. Josh Harris and Chris Givens, well-known for their starting positions on the football team, were added to the roster on January 17. Though both excelled as track athletes during their high school years, it will be the first time that either has run at the college level.
Senior Tyler Dodds will look to continue his trend of strong performances in the 400m dash open alongside Kevin Smith and Malcolm Nunley. Dodds posted a personal-best time of 48.85 in the event to place sixth at the Virginia Tech Invitational.
Wake's mid-distance runners will be well-represented in the 800m run, with Nate Guthals, Sean Lunkenheimer, Kyle Eager and Anthony Marois all scheduled to compete. Eager, in his first two collegiate meets, has posted two top-10 finishes in the event.
Thomas Morrison will lead the long-distance runners as the lone participant in the one mile run after posting a personal-best time of 2:28.97 in the 1,000m run three weeks ago. Freshman Alexander Rose will be making his collegiate debut alongside Marcus Dillon and Tom Divinnie in the 3,000m run.
Alex Hill (long jump), Trey Blanton (pole vault) and Michael Wooten (shot put), the Deacs' mainstays in the field events, are all expected to compete this weekend. Hill posted a season-best finish of 30th in the long jump at the Hokie Invitational, while Blanton finished second in the pole vault at the same meet after posting a seventh-place finish a week prior. Wooten finished 17th in the shot put with a mark of 13.4m at the Virginia Tech Invitational.
A recap of event performances will be posted on Friday evening and again on Saturday following the conclusion of the meet here on WakeForestSports.com.
The Friday session of the Virginia Tech Elite will take place between 5 p.m. and 8:40 p.m., concluding with the men's 200m dash open. Saturday's action will begin at 11 a.m. with the women's high jump and pole vault. The final event, the men's 4x400m relay, is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. Live results for all events can be found at www.flashresults.com under the Virginia Tech Elite page.
Players Mentioned
