Dwight Barbiasz Named ACC Indoor Track Freshman of the Year
3/6/2009 7:00:00 AM | Track & Field
March 6, 2009
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Dwight Barbiasz earned the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Indoor Track Freshman of the Year award. At last week's ACC Championships, Barbiasz earned first place in the high jump to open his career with a provisional mark of 7-02.25. This is the freshman's first ACC accolade.
Virginia Tech's Abigail Schaffer took women's rookie honors with her first place in the pole vault with a mark of 13-05.5.
Wake Forest's Michael Bingham and Miami's Murielle Ahoure have been selected as the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's and Women's Indoor Track Athletes of the Year, respectively, as determined by a vote of the league's 12 head coaches.
Bingham, a senior sprinter from Burlington, N.C., claimed double-gold last week at the 2009 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships. He took top honors in the 400-meter dash in 46.23 seconds. He also ran the anchor leg of the 4x400m relay which took first place in 3:12.01. The 2008 Olympian (Great Britain) earned All-American honors indoors and outdoors in 2007.
Miami's Ahoure, a senior from Bristow, Va., took both the 60m and 200m dash events in NCAA Automatic Qualifying times at last week's championships. She posted times of 7.21 and 23.16 seconds, respectively. Ahoure holds the fourth fastest worldwide time in the 60m and the fastest collegiate time this season. Ahoure adds the ACC accolade to her mantle, which already boasts the 2008 CAA Co-Athlete of the Year Award.
Winning this year's Field Performer of the Year awards are Florida State's Ngoni Makusha and Clemson's April Sinkler. Makusha, a sophomore from Zimbabwe earned the award after taking first place in the long jump with a leap of 8.21m to set a new ACC record and qualify automatically for NCAAs. He also took 8th place in the 60m (6.82 seconds) after running an NCAA automatic time (6.60 seconds) in the prelims.
Clemson's Sinkler struck double gold in the high jump and long jump. She went 6.51m in the long jump to secure an automatic ticket to NCAAs. Her leap of 1.82m in the high jump was an NCAA provisional mark. The Stafford, Va., native also took fourth place in the triple jump with a provisional mark of 13.02m.
Florida State's Bob Braman took a sweep of the Men's and Women's Coach of the Year honors for the first time in his career. The 2005, 2006 and 2007 Men's Coach of the Year added his first Women's honor after both Seminole squads took the ACC Championship last week in Blacksburg. In his sixth year in Tallahassee, Braman earned Florida State's first ACC Indoor title and the seventh consecutive Men's title.
