Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Optimism, Excitement Surrounds Wake Forest’s Track & Field / Cross Country Programs
3/25/2021 12:15:00 PM | Track and Field
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- With four All-America honors and two ACC Championships already achieved, this has been a banner season thus far for the Wake Forest track & field and cross country programs under Coach John Hayes.
Wake Forest's nationally-ranked men's cross country team placed 15th at the NCAA Cross Country Championship last Monday, March 15 and junior Zach Facioni earned All-America honors with his 27th place finish in a time of 30:30.9. For the team at the national meet, it marked the Demon Deacons' best finish as a program since 1996.
In recognition of their efforts, Hayes and Facioni were named the USTFCCCA Southeast Region Men's Coach and Athlete of the Year, respectively.
Those aforementioned two individual ACC Championships (Tony Jones, Anna Bush) at the conference indoor meet and three student-athletes (Bush, Aleeya Hutchins, Hannah Brookover) who earned Second Team All-America accolades at the NCAA Indoor Championships have the Demon Deacons' spring off to a winning start.
"I'm personally extremely excited," Hayes said. "We truly had cross country, indoor and outdoor all going on at the same time right now. We have top-15 in the world in the women's javelin throw in sophomore Alexandra Roberts. We have the top in the NCAA in men's javelin (Elijah Shalaway), and Michael Yow was leading in the hammer throw.
"We're hitting in areas we knew were possible years ago. Our assistant coaches have done a great job of bringing the right people in here, and we are just starting to see some things that we knew were possible. We are hoping that this momentum transitions into the outdoor season and into next year as well."
Though the program is set up now with a ton of talented underclassmen achieving at championship levels, Hayes understands the key to continuing to build the program is by finding the right future Deacs to join in the coming years.
"Recruiting is never easy, and you can't keep your foot off the gas," he said. "But we certainly have some young athletes who are performing at a high level. We're setting ourselves up well for the future, but just have to keep recruiting hard. That's the key."
Since returning to campus last fall after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wake Forest's student-athletes have faced schedule changes and cancelations — which can be troublesome curve balls while in training.
"I ask the student-athletes to be patient, and know that things can change at the last minute," Hayes said. "We want them to be flexible, and they're a great group of young people. Additionally, my staff is doing a tremendous job keeping everything in order with travel plans and all the things that are going on. They are keeping their student-athletes motivated and training."
Hayes has been encouraged with the way his team has responded to those challenges, not just competing, but going out and attaining personal best, program records and conference championships.
"They bounced back and continued to fight," he said. "They are fun to be around. It's wonderful to see them have fun and fight for positions in competition. We can look at how we placed as a team, and it wasn't what we wanted in the indoor championships, but we're so optimistic about where we're going outdoors.
"They've added events that favor us, like the javelin throw and the steeplechase. I believe we're going to be a much-better team in the outdoors. We're incredibly excited about the next few days, weeks and months."
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