April 26, 2002

DES MOINES, Iowa - Baylor's 4x200-meter relay team was just nipped by Arkansas in the women's final as the Bears finished second in the event Friday at the 93rd annual Drake Relays. The foursome of Elizabeth Wilson, April Holliness, Chava Demart and Barbara Petrahn recorded a time of 1:35.13, a mark nearly two-seconds faster then Baylor's previous season-best outing, but were still shy of Arkansas' meet-winning performance (1:34.90).

Anchored by an outstanding 4:04.60 final leg from junior Ferenc Bekesi, the men's 4x1,600-meter relay ran to a third-place finish in university/college division. Baylor's final time of 16:40.55 was less then a second off the current school record mark (16:39.90) set in 1976, but was not enough to surpass champion Notre Dame (16:35.34) or runner-up Eastern Michigan (16:39.31). Senior Jon Capron and sophomores Kyle King and Matt Chance joined Bekesi in the bronze medal-winning performance.

In preliminary relay action, the women's 4x400 won their heat to automatically advance into tomorrow's eight-team final. Tiffany Wise, Chava Demart, Danielle Myricks and Barbara Petrahn combined for their second fastest time of the year (3:35.95) and their sixth consecutive NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

The men's 4x400 relay coasted to a preliminary round-best 3:08.54 clocking. Charles Sterling, Joel Martin, Robbie Quiroga and Darold Williamson were all in on the effort.

The women's 4x100-meter comprised of freshmen Lakadron Ivery and Elizabeth Wilson and seniors Demart and Petrahn, won their heat in 46.01 seconds to advance to Saturday's final competition.

Senior Alisha Hooker also qualified into second-day action with her time of 14.08 in the 100-meter hurdles. Hooker's mark ranked second in her preliminary heat and is the eighth best time going into tomorrow's final.

Action for the Baylor track and field team will conclude tomorrow with finals in both the running and field events beginning at 10 a.m.