July 23, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM - Three members of the Wake Forest Track & Field coaching staff, Chris Helwick, Chris Boyles and Lela V. Nelson will represent Team USA when it takes on Germany on Aug. 2-3 at the 2008 Thorpe Cup in Manhattan, Kansas.

The competition, which is named in honor of 1912 Olympic Decathlon Champion Jim Thorpe, pits two-seven person teams from Germany and the U.S. in heptathlon and decathlon events.

Helwick is coming off of a seventh place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month. He scored 8,010 points in the event, just seven points shy of his personal mark of 8,017, which he set this spring at the Deacon Combined Event on May 14-15. He also won the Panamerican Combined Events Championships in Santo Domingo, Mexico in early June.

Boyles has had an up-and-down season, finishing third at the 2008 USA Indoor Combined Events Championships in March and sixth at the Panamerican Championships. But at the Olympic Trials, a nagging ankle injury flared up midway through the competition and he would have to withdraw.

Nelson qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in both the heptathlon and long jump, but an injury also plagued her in both events, ultimately forcing her to withdraw from the heptathlon competition. Prior to the trials, Nelson turned in a remarkable performance and won the heptathlon at the Panamerican Championships.

In addition to the three competitors, Wake Forest men's track & field head coach Scott Hall will serve as the women's team manager for the event.

This will be the 15th time the Thorpe Cup has been held, with the American men winning 11 of the previous 14 competitions. The events will take place on the campus of Kansas State University and the results cane be found on www.decathlonusa.typepad.com.