May 30, 2002
BATON ROUGE, La. - Baylor lived up to its billing of "Quarter-Mile University" Thursday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as both the men's and women's 4x400-meter relay teams as well as freshman Darold Williamson (400 meters) advanced to the finals of the championship meet.
Tonight marked the 22nd consecutive year the men's 4x400-meter relay qualified into the finals of the NCAA Championships. Running in the first heat the Bears found themselves in an unfamiliar position, fifth after the first two legs of the race. Senior Michael Smith turned in an impressive 45.26-second split to bring the Bears into fourth before handing off to anchor Darold Williamson for the final leg. Williamson then closed a nearly 30 meter gap in the final leg with his astounding 44.82 split time to almost catch race leader LSU. Baylor finished with a final time of 3:04.49, its fastest of the year, to LSU's 3:03.89.
Entering the meet with the nation's 11th best time in the 4x400-meter relay, the Baylor women turned heads Thursday night with their sizzling 3:30.99 performance. The quartet of Tiffany Wise, Chava Demart, Danielle Myricks and Barbara Petrahn combined to post the Bear's second-fastest mark in school history and their best time of the season by nearly four full seconds. The 3:30.99 mark was just 1.88 seconds shy of the school record time set by Angelique Banket, Alayah Cooper, Yulanda Nelson and Jennifer Jordan at the 1998 Big 12 Championships. Baylor advances to Saturday's final with the field's fourth-best time.
In open 400 meter action, freshman Darold Williamson qualified into the first individual NCAA Championship final of his career, winning his heat with a personal best 45.23 mark. Williamson separated from the pack at the 200 meter mark and led comfortably with 100 meters remaining. Down the final stretch Auburn's Sanjay Ayre challenged on the inside, but Williamson was able to hold Ayre off for the victory. Williamson enters Saturday's final with the field's fourth fastest time.
Despite running her second-best 400 meter time of the season, senior Barbara Petrahn missed qualifying to the finals in the event with her 52.97-second showing. Petrahn's time was good enough for a third-place finish in her heat, but it placed her 14th overall, holding her out of Saturday's nine athlete final.
In the field events, freshman April Holliness concluded her stellar freshman campaign jumping 19-6 ? in the long jump competition to finish 19th overall.
Action from the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championships will continue tomorrow, May 31, as the Bears' Jim Autenreith takes his turn in the pole vault and seniors Chava Demart and Michael Smith compete in the 400 hurdle finals.
