Jan. 12, 2007

2007 Arkansas Invitational Results
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Fayetteville, Ark. -- The men's 4 x 400-meter relay team raced to victory in an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 3:05.82 to highlight Baylor's 2007 indoor debut at the non-scored Arkansas Invitational Friday at the Randal Tyson Track Center. All-told, Baylor registered eight victories in its season-opening meet and watched two school records fall.

The Baylor men's 4 x 400-meter relay team of senior Reggie Witherspoon (Marietta, Ga.), freshman J.T. Scheuerman (Littleton, Colo.), senior Kevin Mutai (Round Rock, Texas) and Quentin Iglehart-Summers (San Antonio, Texas) finished more than six seconds ahead of second-place Texas A&M's 3:11.92 in the meet's final race.

"That's smoking fast," second-year Baylor coach Todd Harbour said of his team's performance in the 4 x 400-meter relay. "We've never opened up like this. It was a real fast time for this early in the season."

Witherspoon also won the 200-meter dash in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 20.85 and Mutai took gold in the 400-meter dash with a provisional qualifying mark of 47.04.

The Baylor women's team registered five victories at the season-opening meet. Sophomore Erin Bedell (Plano, Texas) captured the mile in 4:51.81, while freshman Nichole Jones (Spring, Texas) won the 800 meters (2:10.98), freshman Renae Van Whye took first-place in the 3,000 meters (10:10.53) and junior Carla Grace (San Antonio, Texas) made it a Baylor sweep of the 200 with her 24.16 clocking. Baylor's women's distance medley relay team also won in 11:51.89.

Two Baylor school records fell at the meet, as senior Chris Cardwell (Abilene, Texas) broke his own mark in the 35 lb. weight throw with a toss of 54-10 3/4 to finish second, and freshman Katie Stoever (Tulsa, Okla.) cleared 11-7 3/4 to set a new school standard in the pole vault.

Baylor also received a second-place performance from junior Brittany Devereaux (Denton, Texas) in the weight throw with her mark of 56-0. The women's 4 x 400-meter relay team finished third in 3:43.67, while the men had third-place performances from junior Jeremy Jackson (Round Rock, Texas) in the 60-meter hurdles (8.05) and freshman Trey Harts (Lake Charles, La.) in the 200 meters (21.34) as well as its second entry in the 4 x 400-meter relay (3:12.56).

"Overall, it was a good first meet for both teams," Harbour said. "We found out where we are at and what we need to work on. We had a lot of good performances and had some fun today. You don't go into the first meet thinking you are going to automatic (qualify) for anything, and yet we did so in the 4 x 400 and Reggie (Witherspoon) was very close in the 200, which was very impressive."

Baylor returns to the track Jan. 19-20 at the Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.