Wheaton's Ibric Featured in Exhibit at Reopened NCAA Hall of Champions
NORTON, MA- Wheaton College track & field junior
Merzudin Ibric (Revere, MA/Phillips Academy), who
fled a war-torn Bosnia in the late 1990s, is one of 23 athletes
from Divisions I, II and III featured in an exhibit at the NCAA
Hall of Champions, which was renovated before reopening on March 12
in Indianapolis.
The story of Ibric, a 2007 indoor All-American, is displayed within
the "In My Own Words" segment of the outdoor track & field
exhibit. Just prior to the 1995 genocide that took place in
Srebrenica, where approximately 8,000 boys and men were killed,
Ibric and his family left that city before arriving in the United
States in 1998.
A captain his junior year, Ibric has automatically qualified for
the NCAA Championship in the 4x100-meter relay, as he looks to pick
up his second career All-America honor. In addition to earning his
fifth career all-league finish during April's New England Women's
and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) meet, Ibric ran a leg for
4x100M and 4x400M relay quartets that broke school records last
weekend at the All New England Championship.
Beyond his success on the track, Ibric has been profiled by ESPN
and is working on an autobiography. During fall 2007, the
international relations major joined Boston-area genocide survivors
in a march against genocide. Ibric represented Bosnia, spoke at the
demonstration and lit a torch to encourage 2008 Olympics host China
to use its influence and address the crisis in Sudan. Two years
prior, Ibric was the keynote speaker in Cambridge at a 10th
anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre.
The Hall of Champions reopened with 23 state-of-the-art
sport-specific exhibits and several interactive displays after
suffering fire and water damage on November 14, 2007. The
occurrence provided an opportunity to update the multi-purpose
facility, refocus its content and add more interactive
displays. The building originally opened in March 2000, after
the NCAA relocated to Indianapolis in 1999. Please visit www.ncaahallofchampions.com
for additional information about the Hall of Champions.
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