Jan. 27, 2007
The Baylor men's and women's track and field teams recorded eight provisional NCAA Indoor Championship qualifing marks, four for each squad, during the University of Washington Indoor Invitational at Dempsy Indoor on the UW campus in Seattle. There was no team scoring at the two-day competition.
"We had an outstanding meet with eight solid NCAA provisional qualifiers and lots of personal-bests," said second-year Baylor head coach Todd Harbour. "We are very pleased with our efforts this weekend. I'm pleased with where both teams are at after the first month of the season. We are off to a good start as we get ready to enter the indoor championship season next month."
Baylor's women's distance medley relay team of Nichole Jones, Lauren Tillman, Lauren Hagans and Erin Bedell, cruised to victory with a provisional qualifying time of 11:10.71, nearly 14 seconds ahead of second-place Washington.
In the women's 5,000-meter run, Lyndsy Bedell turned a provisional qualifing and personal-best time of 16:37.96 to finish third (second collegiate runner).
Two members of the Bears' champion distance medley relay team, Jones and Erin Bedell, came back to post individual provisional qualifying times. Jones placed fifth (third collegian) with a provisional qualifing time of 4:47.32, while Erin Bedell was 10th (fifth collegian) in the 3,000-meter run in a provisional qualifing 9:20.43.
On the men's side, Baylor's 4 x 400-meter relay team won for the third consecutive week, this time in a provisional 3:07.77 clocking. After running the same foursome for the first two meets, R.J. Anderson, Quentin Iglehart-Summers, Kevin Mutai and LeJerald Betters ran in Seattle and beat the second-place and host-Huskies time (3:12.59) by nearly five seconds.
"It is nice to get a second relay team qualified because down the line at nationals that will give us some options," Harbour said.
Three Bears recorded provisional qualifing times in the 400-meter dash, with J.T. Scheuerman running a 46.80 and Reggie Witherspoon a 46.85 to place third and fourth, respectively, in section 1. Betters won the section 2 400-meter dash in a provisional qualifing time of 46.80.
Section winners from the Baylor women's team included Carla Grace in the 60-meter dash (7.63), DeAna Carson (25.03) and Kim Brown (26.66) in the 200-meter dash, Kathryn Benvegnu in the 800-meter run (2:15.39), Charity Williams in the 1,000 meters (2:55.50) , Rachael Long in the 60-meter hurdles (8.74) and Brown in the long jump (5.59m/18-4 1/4).
Grace was also the runner-up in the 200-meter dash (24.25) and ran the second leg of Baylor's first-place 4 x 400-meter relay. The women's 4 x 400-meter relay team of Katrina Taylor, Grace, Tiana Hood and Tillman ran a 3:42.67 to best second-place UCLA's 3:43.25.
Baylor men's team section winners included Scheuerman in the 200 meter dash (21.76), Mutai in the 800 (1:50.64), Mitchell Sanders in the 1,000 meters (2:32.91), Jeremy Jackson in the 60-meter hurdles (8.07) and Chris Cardwell in the weight thrown (16.69m/54-9 1/4).
Two former Bears, Olympic gold medalist Darold Williamson and Chris Gillis also compete in Seattle. Williamson opened his 2007 indoor season with a 46.48 400-meter dash to place second in section 1 behind Washington's Alex Harcourt (46.43) and just ahead of three Bears, while Gillis placed second in the long jump with a leap of 25-6.
After three consecutive weekends of competition, Baylor takes a week off before returning to action Feb. 9-10 at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
