March 31, 2007
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Brittany Devereaux broke the Baylor school record in the women's hammer throw, and the Bears recorded five regional qualifying times during the first day of competition at the Stanford Invitational held at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
Devereaux (Denton, Texas) recorded a toss of 46.31 meters (151-11), needing just one throw to eclipse her previous mark of 44.06 meters (144-07) set last weekend at the Dr Pepper Invitaitonal.
"Brittany has come a long way in the hammer throw," said assistant coach Danny Brabham. "She is now starting to realize what she can accomplish in the event, and she will continue to get better and improve each week."
Lauren Hagans (Little Rock, Ark.) won the women's 800 meters with a regional qualifying time of 2:06.60. The personal-best time was more than three seconds under the regional qualifying standard of 2:09.80.
"I was more nervous before this race than any other this season," said Hagans. "I really wanted to break my personal record today (2:07.50); I really felt that I could run faster than I have in other meets this year. I had to work my way around some other runners through the second lap, but I felt really strong at the end."
Danielle Bradley (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Kevin Mutai (Round Rock, Texas) also set regional qualifying times in the 800 meters. Bradley finished 11th overall with a personal-best time of 2:08.40. Mutai clocked a 1:50.10 to finish seventh despite being nearly knocked over through the last turn.
Trey Harts (Lake Charles, La.) and Courtney Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) recorded regional marks for the second straight week in the men's 200 meters. The duo finished second and third overall (the top two collegiate runners), with Harts finishing in 21.14 and Thomas in 21.15. Freshman David Gettis (Los Angeles, Calif.) finished in seventh with a time of 21.65 in his first race of the outdoor season after being sidelined with mononucleosis.
The Bears qualified all four of their 100 meter runners into the event finals on Saturday. Tiana Hood (Long Beach, Calif.) and Carla Grace (San Antonio, Texas) finished in fifth and sixth place in the preliminaries with times of 11.99 and 12.00, respectively. Jacob Norman (Temple, Texas) finished fourth (first collegiate runner) with a time of 10.57, while Thomas finished seventh (fourth collegiate runner) with a mark of 10.67.
Grace finished third overall (second collegiate runner) in the women's 200 meters with a time of 24.09, while Hood finished fifth overall (fourth collegiate runner) with a clocking of 24.18.
Lauren Tillman (Lawrenceville, Ga.) finished 11th in the women's 400-meter hurdles with a time of 61.52. Katrina Taylor (Baton Rouge, La.) finished 14th and Rachael Long (Houston, Texas) finished 18th with times of 62.75 and 64.17, respectively. Sterling Farmer tripped over a hurdle, but pushed through the finish line to place 30th in the men's 400-meter hurdles in 62.17.
Jeremy Jackson (Round Rock, Texas) finished eighth in the men's 110-meter hurdles in 14.53 to qualify for the event finals on Saturday. Kim Brown (Waco, Texas) finished 29th in the women's 100-meter hurdles with a mark of 14.86. Brown also placed 13th in the women's long jump with a leap of 5.37 meters (17-07.50).
Chris Cardwell (Abilene, Texas) finished ninth in the men's hammer throw with a toss of 51.10 meters (167-08). Kayla Smith (Arlington, Texas) placed 12th in the women's high jump with a leap of 1.63 meters (5-04.25).
Kaleigh Teel (Friendswood, Texas) finished seventh in the women's pole vault with a clearance of 3.50 meters (11-05.75). Katie Stoever placed 15th with a height of 3.35 meters (10-11.75).
Freshman Renae Van Whye (Collierville, Tenn.) placed third in the women's 5,000 meters with a personal-best time of 16:57.91, while Jessi Barnes (Bentonville, Ark.) finished 18th in 17:33.87.
Baylor returns to action on Saturday as the Bears continue competition in the Stanford Invitational. Live results will be posted at www.gostanford.com.
