Durham, N.C.----Eleven Wingate University track and field student-athletes will compete in the Duke University Twilight meet Sunday in historic Wallace Wade Stadium (meet schedule). Seven Bulldog men and four Wingate women will attempt to post provisional times and leaps for the NCAA Division II national championship meet May 23-25 in Pueblo, Colo.

Wingate junior Astute Evans (High Point, N.C.) established an NCAA Division II provisional mark in the triple jump at the Charlotte 49er Classic March 16, leaping 14.67 meters. Evans’ jump was a new school record and (at the time) the third-best leap in NCAA Division II this season. Evans received Wingate’s Field Performer of the Year award at the school’s recent athletic awards ceremony.
 
“We’re hoping for Astute to improve upon his provisional mark and to hopefully jump something which will get him into the national meet,” Wingate head track and field coach Joe Soehnlen says. “He needs approximately one additional foot.”

“For the others, we’re hoping for them to either provisionally qualify or to better their personal bests and/or school records,” Soehnlen says. “Sophomores Christina Matheny (high jump, Akron, Ohio), Tyler Lee (hurdles, Cocoa Beach, Fla.), George Williams (high jump, Fayetteville, N.C.) and graduate student James Robinson (hurdles, Raleigh, N.C.) have the best shots to hit individual provisional marks. They’ve all been looking good recently and really rounding into shape.”
 
Wingate’s Field Performer of the Year award winner (for the second year in a row), Matheny has special memories from the 2012 Duke Twilight event. “The Duke Twilight (meet) is where Christina provisionally qualified last year,” Soehnlen says. “She really jumps well at Wallace Wade Stadium.” On May 6, 2012, Matheny cleared 1.68 meters in the Duke Twilight women’s high jump for her NCAA Division II provisional mark.
 
Matheny will be joined by three teammates. Bulldogs junior JaLisha Little (sprints, Charlotte, N.C.) was Wingate’s Track Performer of the Year award winner. Sophomores Mckenzi Mocilnikar (Marshallville, Ohio) and Rebecca Seabock (Hickory, N.C.) will run the 400 meter hurdles and the 800 meters, respectively.
 
Evans, Lee, Williams and Robinson are four of seven Wingate men venturing to the Duke Twilight meet. Sophomore Cole Henderson (sprints, Elon, N.C.) is Wingate’s reigning Track Performer of the Year award winner. Henderson, Lee, Robinson and sophomore Corey Silvestri (Charlotte, N.C.) will race in the 4x400 meter relay. Silvestri will also compete in the 400 meters and the 400 meter hurdles.
 
Bulldog junior Jesse Lavelle (Greensboro, N.C.) won the men’s hammer throw at the Lenoir-Rhyne Southeast Regional championship meet, one of 12 Wingate student-athletes to claim at least one individual regional title. Lavelle will compete in the same event at the Duke Twilight meet.
 
On Sunday, the Duke Twilight will kick off with the javelin throw at noon on Duke’s East Campus. All other field events will be held on Duke’s West Campus, beginning with the men’s hammer throw at 2 p.m. Running events will begin at 5 p.m. The Blue Devil Network will begin live streaming events on the track beginning at 5 p.m. Live results will be available throughout the entire competition via Flash Results.

The 2013 Duke Twilight event at Wallace Wade Stadium is potentially the final Duke sponsored track meet in the historic venue. The Blue Devil track and field program has called Wallace Wade Stadium home for over 80 years.

The stadium records alone include the names of eight Olympic champions including Michael Johnson, Shawn Crawford, Dennis Mitchell, Edwin Moses, Charles Austin and Michael Conley on the men’s side and Gwen Torrence, Maria Mutola and Faina Melnik on the women’s side. The group of record holders also own over 60 collective Olympic appearances. 

WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Wingate University, ranked as the 6th “best value” in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves nearly 2,700 students on three campuses in Wingate, Matthews and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 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, physical therapy 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. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 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 52 selections. Among North Carolina’s colleges and universities, Wingate’s 52 Academic All-America® honorees is second (to Duke University) during this millennium. Wingate’s 61 lifetime Academic All-America® picks are tops among all SAC schools. For more information, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.