April 5, 2002
AUSTIN, Texas - Freshman April Holliness became the first Baylor athlete to ever win the long jump competition at the Texas Relays today jumping 20-5 here at the Mike A. Myers Track Stadium. Holliness' jumped matched her best effort of the outdoor season and marks the second win of her collegiate career.
"I did a lot of endurance training this past week before the competition. I felt good coming out here and I had a feeling I would jump well," said Holliness. "The first couple of jumps weren't that good but I just tried to maintain and I pulled through."
In other field action senior Eboni Hammond threw a season-best 147-6 distance in the discus to finish eighth in the section B competition.
In the relay events, the Lady Bears advanced to the finals in both the 4x100 and the 4x400-meter relays. The quartet of Chava Demart, April Holliness, Elizabeth Wilson and Barbara Petrahn ran their second fastest time of the year in the 4x100, clocking 45.52, to finish second in their heat to LSU (44.37). Pulling double-duty were Demart and Petrahn who later teamed with Tiffany Wise and Danielle Myricks in the 4x400 to easily win their heat and qualify into second-day action with the third best time behind host Texas (3:35.60) and Washington State (3:37.23).
The Bears also had a successful outing in the distance medley relays as the women finished third with an 11:37.21 clocking and the men turned in 9:42.14 time to finish third overall.
Baylor did not send any athletes into the finals in the short sprints or hurdles, but still saw solid performances throughout the day. Freshmen Lakadron Ivery and Elizabeth Wilson turned in times of 12.31 and 12.37, respectively, in the 100-meter dash. While fellow freshman Chris Gillis posted a 15.45 mark in the men's 110-meter hurdles and senior Alisha Hooker and sophomore Candace Carroll ran times of 14.39 and 14.88 in the women's 100-meter hurdles.
Competition from the Texas Relays will conclude tomorrow, Saturday, April 6. Final day action will begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. with both the running events.
