Track Enjoys Big Day at Big 12 Championships
5/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 18, 2001
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - According to head coach Clyde Hart, Baylor's men's and women's track and field teams could not have had a better day. Two school records fell and a plethora of Bears advanced to the finals in various events here Friday during preliminaries day at the 2001 Big 12 Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by Texas A&M at the Frank G. Anderson Track and Field Complex.
"We couldn't have done much more," Hart said. "We did as good as we could have hoped for. This was probably the best (preliminaries round) we've had while in the Big 12. I told the kids this morning, 'Today is the finals.' And we ran that way. We know tomorrow will be tough, but we are happy about today."
Two performances stood out among sundry strong outings. In the women's 400-meter hurdles, Chava Demart shattered her own school record by more than a full second. She turned in the best time of the preliminaries with a time of 57.76 seconds, a mark that ranks 14th in the nation.
"That was quite a surprise," Hart said. "The men's intermediate hurdlers were turning in times around 51, 52. Here she comes and runs a 57 in conditions that were not the best. That's very impressive."
Meanwhile, Barbara Petrahn ran the fastest time of the preliminaries in the women's 200 meters and the second-fastest time in the 400 meters. Her mark of 22.92 seconds in the 200 broke the previous Baylor record of 23.00 seconds set by She She Crawford in 1992. That time meets NCAA automatic qualification standards and ranks third in the nation. Ssereta Lafayette also ran a personal-best provisional mark of 23.22 seconds in the 200 to advance to the finals, that time ranks 10th in the nation.
Earlier in the day, Lafayette ran a personal-best provisional mark of 11.48 seconds in the 100 meters to advance to the finals with the fourth-fastest time. Lanie Millar, the school-record holder in the 800 meters, posted the fastest time of the preliminaries at 2:11.02. In the 400 meters, Baylor put three athletes in the finals, in fact, Texas and Texas Tech will be the only other schools in the 400 with three athletes and two athletes, respectively. Tiffany Wise (55.47) and Keisa Brown (55.98) will join Petrahn in the finals.
On the men's side, Brandon Couts turned in a prelim-best mark of 46.35 seconds in the 400 meters. Zsolt Szeglet (46.92) and Joel Martin (47.20) gave Baylor the top three 400-meter times of the preliminaries. In the 200, Couts qualified with the second-best time at 20.82 seconds. Szeglet will also run the 200 Saturday, turning the fourth-best time at 21.03.
Floyd Thompson, currently ranked third in the nation in the 800 meters, led the preliminaries field at 1:50.31, Damian Davis also qualified at 1:52.10. Jon Capron (1:51.40) did not get into the finals despite having the fifth-fastest time of the preliminaries. The top two times from each heat plus the next fastest overall time advanced. Capron finished third in fourth heat and Stewart Kimball of Missouri received the wildcard qualification at 1:50.70.
Baylor also put two athletes in the finals of the men's 400-meter hurdles, as was expected. National leader Bayano Kamani, ranked ninth in the world, ran 51.02, while Michael Smith ran 51.16. In the men's 1,500 meters, Ferenc Bekesi advanced to the finals with the third-fastest mark at 3:52.87, Nick Devenport's time of 3:53.53 was the seventh-best mark of the day.
Competition will conclude here Saturday. Field events begin at 11 a.m. with running events getting underway at 4:40 p.m.
