Feb. 8, 2007
With the Big 12 Championships looming on the horizon in two weeks, the Baylor men's and women's track and field teams head to Fayetteville, Ark., site of the 2007 NCAA Championships, for the Tyson Invitational, Feb. 9-10. The meet will be run at the Randal Tyson Track Center with action starting at 10 a.m. each day.
"This is our last opportunity to turn in some good performances before the Big 12 Championships," said second-year Baylor head coach Todd Harbour. "This meet is annually one of the best in the country and has great fields in every event. It is spread out over two days on a fast track, so hopefully we'll be able to qualify some more individuals for next month's NCAA Championships. We are looking forward to some great competition in our final tune-up before the Big 12 Championships."
Including 10th-ranked Baylor, 38 men's teams are scheduled to make the trip to Fayetteville this weekend, including 15 ranked in the latest USTFCCCA men's Top 20 (No. 1 Florida State, No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Auburn, No. 5 Texas, No. 7 Nebraska, No. 8 Oregon, No. 9 South Carolina, No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Florida, No. 12 Stanford, No. 13 Clemson, No. 14 UTEP, No. 15 LSU, No. 16 Tennessee and No. 17 Louisville).
One of the premier events of the two-day meet will be the men's invitational 4 x 400-meter relay, which will be run on Friday evening at 9:55 p.m. Baylor, which owns the nation's fastest collegiate time this season at 3:05.82; the nation's second-fastest 2007 relay in LSU (3:07.39), defending NCAA indoor champion Florida (3:09.71) and Team USA are expected to challenge the World Indoor record of 3:01.96. Team USA's relay will include Wallace Spearmon, LaShawn Merritt, Xavier Carter and Andrew Rock.
Baylor will select its relay foursome from six athletes--senior Reggie Witherspoon, freshman J.T. Scheuerman, sophomore Quentin Iglehart-Summers, senior Kevin Mutai and freshmen LeJerald Betters and R.J. Anderson. Those six performers have run on two of the nation's top three 4 x 400-meter relays in 2007, with Witherspoon, Scheuerman, Mutai and Iglehart-Summers running the nation's top time and Anderson, Iglehart-Summers, Mutai and Betters turning in the third-fastest mark of the indoor season in Seattle at 3:07.77.
Witherspoon owns the nation's fastest time in the 200-meter dash (20.85), which he set at the season-opening Arkansas Invitational. In the 400-meter dash, Baylor student-athletes own three of the nation's top nine times with Scheuerman and Betters tied for the seventh-fastest time at 46.80. Witherspoon has posted the country's ninth-fastest 400 (46.85) and Mutai's 47.04 ranks No. 12.
Like the men's division of the Tyson Invitational, the women's division will feature approximately 38 teams, including host-Arkansas, which is ranked 15th in the latest national poll.
The Baylor women's distance medley relay team of freshman Nichole Jones, senior Lauren Tillman, junior Lauren Hagans and sophomore Erin Bedell has posted the nation's second-best of the indoor season at 11:10.71. Junior Lyndsy Bedell is ranked No. 9 in the 5,000-meter run (16:37.96), Erin Bedell is No. 12 in the 3,000 meters (9:20.43) and Jones stands 20th in the mile (4:47.32).
The Tyson Invitational will be televised on ESPN2, Sun. Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. (Central). For an updated schedule and live results of the Tyson Invitational, visit www.tysoninvitational.org or www.hogwired.com.
