May 4, 2002

AUSTIN, Texas - Baylor's track and field team came away with five individual events titles here at the Texas Invitational Saturday. For the second consecutive week both the men's and women's 4x400-meter relay teams swept event gold.

The Baylor men turned in a season-best 3:04.59 clocking to post their third straight NCAA provisional qualifying mark and narrowly miss the automatic standard of 3:04.00. The women's 4x400 turned in a time of 3:40.09 to top the field.

Sophomore Katherine Duncan and junior Leah Marbach turned in top performances of their own as Duncan won the 1,500 meter run with a time of 4:41.00, and Marbach finished first in the 3,000 steeplechase with season-best clocking of 11:03.83. Fellow junior Stephanie Bennett was right of Marbach's heels taking second in the steeplechase with a time of 11:07.81.

Also posting a notable performance for the Lady Bears was freshman Danielle Myricks in the 400-meter hurdles. Myricks finished fourth in the event with a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 58.55.

Dominating the field in the men's 400-meter hurdles, senior Michael Smith and freshman Dwight Ruff swept the top-two spots in the event with times of 50.70 and 50.83, respectively.

Baylor's distance runners also turned in solid performances for the Bears as freshmen Sam Bernal and Jason Baker both earned second-place finishes on the day. Bernal was just .02 seconds off his season-best mark in the 3,000 meters (8:45.21), while Baker earned runner-up honors with a time of 9:45.73 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

In the field events freshman Chris Gillis was the only Baylor athlete to walk away with a top-three finish, placing third in the long jump with a distance of 23-7 ?.

The Baylor track team will return to action next week with a midweek competition at Texas A&M on Thursday, May 9.