Sports > April 10, 2008

By Hailey Robbins | Staff writer

The Demon Deacon track and field team split in half April 4-6 to compete on opposite sides of the country, competing in both the Stanford Invitational and Duke Invitational simultaneously. Mid-distance runners excelled in both competitions and set several season bests.

Nosenko ran the 5000m only once all season, but finished 20th amongst top collegiate competition. Her time of 16:38.16 seconds qualified her for NCAA regionals, where she will compete alongside fellow Deacon seniors Michelle Lloyd and Kerry Major, junior Carly Mauch and sophomore Caroline Vaughn.

Graduate student Matthew Owen and junior Mark Russell both ran the two fastest times of the season in the 1,500m run.

Owen tied his personal best of 3:52.72, and Russell was a hair behind with a time of 3:55.78.

Senior Caitlin Chrisman finished 18th overall in the 10,000m run with a time of 36:05.49.

“The coaches really stress the importance of desire for improvement with every race and as a team have been working on that,” freshman Katherine Sinacore said.

“Overall, the coaches were very pleased with our performance. All of our personal bests and consistently fast times were great indications of how (the team) operates as a whole.”

Although rain continued to fall throughout the invitational, senior Jill Ahrens set a program best in Wake Forest history for the pole vault, finishing in fourth place overall with a 12-03.50 vault.

This is the second time this year she has set a program reccord.

At the ACC Indoor Track championships earlier this year, Ahrens set the school record with her mark of 12-01.50.

Junior Phillip Warsaw narrowly missed his personal best in the 400m hurdles.

In his only collegiate start in the open 400, Warsaw sped to the fourth fastest time of the season for the Deacs, finishing with a time of 49.07 seconds.

Narrowly missing the finals in the 100m, sophomore Nicole Castronuova finished the 200m dash in first place with a time of 24.35 seconds.

Sinacore tied her record best in the 800m and she also added a collegiate best in the 1500m. Her 2:20 time for the 800m was the fourth best Demon Deacon time of the 2008 season.

“In the 1,500 I just went out with the race plan that the coaches gave me I am pretty satisfied with the time,” Sinacore said.

“I am hoping to be able to break my record in the next meet.”

Sophomore Whitney Curry posted a personal best in the 3,000m, posting the fastest time for the Demon Deacons all season with her time of 10:10.11.

It was over 24 seconds faster than her previous record. The Deacons look to continue their success at the ACC Outdoor Championships in Georgia, April 17-19.