Jan. 17, 2007
After a successful debut at last weekend's Arkansas Invitational, the Baylor men's and women's track and field teams head to Albuquerque, N.M., for the second annual Modrall Sperling Lobo Invitational, Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19-20, at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Action gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m. (Mountain) and continues at 10 a.m. on Saturday in downtown Albuquerque.
"We are excited about the opportunity to run at Albuquerque this weekend," said Baylor coach Todd Harbour. "This will be a great facility to compete at with a very fast track. The competition will be outstanding, just as it was last week at Arkansas, and we hope to build on our performances from that meet."
In addition to Baylor, men's and women's teams from host-New Mexico, LSU, Oklahoma, Portland State, Texas A&M, UCLA and UTEP are scheduled to compete this weekend along with the BYU men. All-told, the meet will feature 36 nationally ranked student-athletes and eight ranked relay teams. Live results of the 2007 Modrall Sperling Lobo Invitational will be available at www.recordtiming.com.
The men's Lobo Invitational field is headlined by four teams in the latest Trackwire power poll--sixth-ranked Baylor, No. 13 UTEP, No. 13 Texas A&M and No. 16 UCLA. Twenty men listed among Trackwire's Dandy Dozen event power ranks are slated to run this weekend, including 11 in the sprint events. The nation's top three 4 x 400-meter relay teams--No. 1 Baylor, No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Texas A&M, along with 11th-ranked BYU, will go head-to-head in Saturday's final event. The Bears turned in a sizzling 3:05.82 to win last weekend's Arkansas Invitational.
Baylor student-athletes ranked in this week's Dandy Dozen include senior Reggie Witherspoon (No. 4) and freshman Trey Harts in the 200 meters (No. 7) as well as sophomore Quentin Iglehart-Summers (No. 6), senior Kevin Mutai (No. 11) and freshman J.T. Scheuerman (No. 12) in the 400 meters. In addition, Baylor sophomore Jacob Norman, the defending NCAA 60 meter champion, is ranked No. 6 in that event and freshman David Gettis stands No. 8 in the 400 meters, but both are sidelined due to injury and won't compete this weekend.
Competition in the women's Lobo Invitational division is expected to be just as strong this weekend, as No. 3 LSU and No. 9 Texas A&M head the field. Sixteen ranked student-athletes and three of the country's top 10 4 x 400-meter relay teams--No. 2 LSU, No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 8 Baylor, are scheduled to race. The 200 meters, with 10 nationally ranked athletes entered, will be a marquee event to watch on the women's side.
While no Baylor women are ranked as individuals in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen, the Bears' distance medley relay is ranked No. 5 nationally and its 4 x 400-meter relay unit is ranked No. 8.
At the 2006 Lobo Invitational, seven NCAA automatic qualifying marks and 44 NCAA provisional qualifying standards were recorded as an NCAA qualifying mark was registered in 27 of 32 events during the non-scored meet a year ago.
