Wingate, N.C.----Wingate University vice president and director of athletics Steve Poston announces the Bulldogs will add men’s and women’s indoor track and field to the school’s sports roster, effective immediately. Wingate head track and field and cross country coach Joe Soehnlen will oversee Wingate’s indoor efforts.
 
“As we enter our third season of outdoor track and field, the addition of indoor track and field is a natural progression,” Poston says. “This gives our student-athletes an opportunity to compete during the winter, helping prepare them well for the outdoor season.”
           
In indoor track, the events are virtually the same with a couple notable exceptions. Indoor track athletes do not run the 10,000 meters; they run the 3000 meters and the distance medley relay instead. In the throwing events, they do not throw the javelin and the hammer, but instead participate in the weight throw, which is either 35 pounds (men) or 20 pounds (women). 
 
“It’s exciting for our athletes to be given an opportunity to compete indoors, especially our sprinters, jumpers and throwers who have been going through conditioning for about eight weeks now,” Soehnlen says. “I feel it’s an appropriate time for us to do indoors in terms of our programs’ growth. Our athletes have progressed nicely and we should have a couple athletes who will have the opportunity to provisionally qualify for the national championships.”

Soehnlen’s Bulldog outdoor teams completed their second season of senior college track and field competition with two 2012 NCAA Division II Provisional Qualifiers (Steve Hammond in the men’s steeplechase and Christina Matheny in the women’s high jump). Wingate won the women’s Southeast Regional Meet and earned a runner-up finish on the men’s side.

“I continue to be impressed with the excellent job Coach Soehnlen is doing as he leads our cross country and track and field programs,” Poston says. “I appreciate his willingness to assume this responsibility with the indoor season.”
 
Wingate’s student-athletes are looking forward to the challenge. “We’ve been doing conditioning since September; this gives us the opportunity to compete and qualify for nationals and compete at a high level,” Matheny says. “Indoor track and field allows us more opportunities to compete and qualify for nationals and establish ourselves as a strong program moving forward.”

“Competing in indoor track means we get more chances to go hard and get better,” sprinter Cole Henderson says. “We want to perform to the best of our abilities. We are excited about the possibilities indoor track presents.”

Soehnlen says the Bulldogs will compete with a limited squad for a few of the winter 2012 meets. Wingate will open its first-ever indoor track and field season Jan. 20, 2013 at the Winston-Salem State Open. The event will be held at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. The Bulldogs will return to the same venue Feb. 1-2 to participate in the Hilton Garden Invitational.

Additional events include Clemson’s Tiger Paw Invitational (Feb. 8-9), the Fast Track Championship Tune-Up (Feb. 16, JDL Fast Track), the NCAA Pre-Championship meet (Feb. 18, Birmingham Crossplex). The 2013 NCAA Division II indoor track and field national championship meet is March 9-10 at the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Wingate University, ranked as the 6th “best value” in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves 2,648 students on three campuses in Wingate, Matthews and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 34 undergraduate majors, 37 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, graduate degrees in business, accounting, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration, and doctorates in pharmacy and education. With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life.
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 20 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past six years.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing private colleges in the 2000’s with 50 selections. Among North Carolina’s colleges and universities, Wingate’s 50 Academic All-America® honorees are first during this millennium. Wingate’s 59 lifetime Academic All-America® picks are tops among all SAC schools. For more information, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.