June 8, 2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Baylor senior Chris Gillis (Pennsauken, N.J.) posted a mark of 7.94 meters (26-0 ¾) to finish third and earn his second career All-America honor on the second day of the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Thursday at Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex.
"I felt pretty good going into the finals," said Gillis, who stood second after the day's opening round. "I thought my first jump was really good and I thought I could use that and improve on it, but it just didn't go the way I wanted."
The Big 12 Conference had a 1-2-3 sweep of the event as Gillis finished behind Nebraska's Arturs Abolins with a jump of 8.00 meters (26-3) and Texas A&M's Fabrice Lapierre with a mark of 7.98 meters (26-2 ¼).
"I can honestly say that I tried my hardest and gave it my all," Gillis said. "I made a few little mistakes, but I gave everything I had."
Senior Wil Fitts (DeSoto, Texas) ran a season-best 1:47.53 to finish fourth in his semifinal heat of the 800 meters and qualify with the seventh-best time for Saturday's final at 12:15 p.m.
"The race went really well, I'm excited to get back to 1:47," Fitts said. "It's a blessing that it came at the right time, because I couldn't do it at the Big 12 Championships or at the regional, but it came at the most important meet of the year."
Fitts ranked 16th in the nation in the 800 meters coming into the NCAA Championships, but will now run in the final as one of the top eight.
"I don't feel like the underdog, I feel like everyone else sees me as an underdog," Fitts said. "I knew I had it in me and I that I could run with anyone else. I knew if I went out there and did things the same, the results would have been the same, so I started my kick earlier and I feel like I'm back to my prime.
"I ran today like it was the last race of my career, because if I didn't do my best, it would have been my last race, so I'm looking forward to going out with a bang on Saturday."
The men's 4x400-meter relay of freshman Quentin Iglehart-Summers (San Antonio, Texas) and juniors Mark Teter (San Antonio, Texas), Kevin Mutai (Round Rock, Texas) and Reggie Witherspoon (Marietta, Ga.) won its heat to automatically advance to Saturday's final with a time of 3:04.54, tying for the third-fastest qualifying time.
The women's Big 12 champion 4x400-meter relay of freshman Katrina Taylor (Baton Rouge, La.), sophomore Carla Grace (San Antonio, Texas), junior Kandace Tucker (Irving, Texas) and senior Angel Perkins (Cerritos, Calif.) qualified for the finals with a season-best 3:31.02, the seventh-best qualifying time.
Freshman Erin Bedell (Plano, Texas) ran 4:26.96 to finish 24th in the 1,500 meters. She got off to a good start, moving into the top two for much of the race. Bedell was in great shape through 1,000 meters when the stresses of recent illnesses and a long season began to take their toll and she dropped back from the pack.
On Friday, Perkins will run in the women's 400 meters semifinals at 5:25 p.m. PDT, Witherspoon will run in the men's 400 meters semifinals at 5:35 p.m. PDT and Tucker will run in the 200 meters semifinals at 5:45 p.m. PDT.
