Iglehart-Summers, Men's 4x400-Meter Relay Take Regional Championship

Track & Field 5/26/2007 12:00:00 AM

May 26, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa -

Quentin Iglehart-Summers won the open 400 meters, and the men's 4x400-meter relay dropped the nations fastest time at the 2007 NCAA Midwest Regional meet on Saturday at Drake Stadium. Lauren Hagans set a new school record in the 800 meters to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.

"I am really proud of our team," said head coach Todd Harbour. "We had a lot of quality athletes that competed hard for us today. We put up a lot of PRs (personal records), season bests, and school records. We like Drake a lot; we had a couple of pretty good days here for Drake Relays.

"We had a lot of people that qualified," said Harbour. "And hopefully, we will get a few more later this week. I thought that Lauren Hagans really stepped up big for us. She really had a break through race. And our men's 4x400-meter relay was really impressive to be able to run that fast by themselves for the majority of the race."

Baylor ran 3:01.66 in the 4x400-meter relay, the fastest time in the nation this season. Earlier this season, Baylor ran 3:02.00, the previous nation-leading time, on the same track during the Drake Relays. Reggie Witherspoon (Marietta, Ga.) got out of the blocks quickly, making up the stagger on the field and passing off with a 45.4 split. LeJerald Betters (Waco, Texas) ran the second-leg and extended the lead for the Bears with a split of 45.0. Kevin Mutai (Round Rock, Texas) held the lead for the Bears, running a 45.7 split before passing the stick to Iglehart-Summers (San Antonio, Texas). The sophomore held a 30-meter lead through the last lap, beating the field by more than three seconds.

"It is great to win; we just want to give all the glory to God," said Iglehart-Summers. "My teammates ran well and were able to put me in a good spot heading into the anchor leg. We wanted to run fast today, and were able to put up a good time."

The Bears win the 4x400-meter relay for the fifth-straight year at the NCAA Midwest Regional, each year since the NCAA began regional meets. The time ranks as the fifth-fastest in the world, and the third-fastest in the United States. The Bears also set the Midwest Regional record, breaking the old mark of 3:02.65, set by Baylor in 2005.

Baylor ran sub-3:02 in the 4x400-meter relay for the 73rd time in NCAA history. The Bears are responsible for 30 of those 73 times (41.1%), with Arizona State ranking second with six such occurrences. The time also marks the 202nd time in NCAA history that a 4x400-meter relay ran under 3:03. Baylor owns 65 of the 202 times (32.2%), with LSU in second place with 13 occurrences.

Iglehart-Summers clocked a time of 45.62, a new season-best time to claim the regional championship. Betters took second with a time of 45.77, while J.T. Scheuerman placed sixth in 46.69.

"(Baylor Director of Track and Field) Coach (Clyde) Hart talks to us a lot about using our strength, and being strong in the second half of the race," said Iglehart-Summers. "We have a lot of 400 meter guys, and we want everyone to do well. We pull hard for each other."

"You really have to be on your `A-Game', whether it's in the preliminaries or the finals," said Betters. "There are so many good quarter-milers, so you have to run hard all the time."

Hagans (Little Rock, Ark.) automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships by finishing fifth in the 800 meters with a school-record time of 3:05.69. Nichole Jones (Spring, Texas), who set the previous Baylor record of 3:05.89 at the Big 12 Championships, finished sixth, one-hundredth of a second behind Hagans at 3:05.70. Danielle Bradley (West Palm Beach, Fla.) also set a new personal record, finishing eighth in 2:06.51.

"Coming into the race, I knew that I really wanted to qualify for nationals," said Hagans. "I haven't run as well as I wanted to during the year, so I really just wanted to come out and show what I'm capable of. I was really able to turn it on when I needed to.

"I've worked hard for this school record for three years," continued Hagans. "Nichole and Danielle are both going to keep pushing to get the record, so it will be fun to see how low we can go."

Witherspoon finished second in the men's 200 meters, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships with a time of 20.76, the fourth-straight race that Witherspoon has run under 21 seconds. The senior had never run sub-21 seconds in the 200 meters prior to the Big 12 Championship preliminaries when he clocked 20.32, the second-fastest time in the nation.

"I am happy with the way the race went," said Witherspoon. "I just wanted to go out and do enough to qualify for NCAAs. I just wanted to make sure that strain anything or get hurt."

The women's 4x400-meter relay finished fifth with a season-best time of 3:34.31. The Lady Bears changed their order as Katrina Taylor (Baton Rouge, La.) led off with a 53.5 split out of the blocks. Carla Grace (San Antonio, Texas) split 52.2 to pull Baylor to a dead heat for second place. Rena Napolean (Colorado Springs, Colo.) ran a 54.5 split, and passed to Lauren Tillman (Lawrenceville, Ga.) who ran a time of 53.9 for Baylor. The Lady Bears will hope to receive an at-large bid from the NCAA.

Mutai took eighth in the men's 800 meters with a time of 1:50.08.

Tillman finished seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 59.99. Brittany Devereaux (Denton, Texas) failed to record a mark in the women's discus, fouling on all three of her attempts.

Stasia Kelly-Taylor (Atlanta, Ga.) finished 21st in the women's triple jump with a mark of 12.13m (39-09.75). Lyndsy Bedell (Plano, Texas) took 15th in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:53.38.

Baylor failed to automatically qualify its 4x100-meter relays to the NCAA Championships. R.J. Anderson (Big Pine Key, Fla.), Witherspoon, Scheuerman, and Courtney Thomas (Kilgore, Texas) finished sixth overall with a time of 40.22. The Lady Bear relay team of Jessica Gregory (Richmond, Texas), Grace, DeAna Carson (Long Beach, Calif.), and Taylor placed seventh in the women's finals with a time of 45.34.

Both relays will watch the results from other regionals, hoping to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. The men's relay entered the weekend with the 10th-fastest time in the nation at 39.63, and moved up one spot on Friday due to a disqualification by Texas A&M in the preliminaries. The Lady Bears were ranked 21st in the nation at 44.89 entering the weekend.

Baylor will finalize its NCAA Championship plans on Saturday as the NCAA will name the final qualifiers and at-large bid recipients. The 2007 NCAA Championships will take place on June 6-9 in Sacramento, Calif.

Saturday Results

Women's Events

4x100-Meter Relay

1. Texas A&M - 43.29

7. Baylor - 45.34

800 Meters

1. Heather Dorniden, Minn. - 2:02.03

5. Lauren Hagans, BU - 2:05.69

6. Nichole Jones, BU - 2:05.70

8. Danielle Bradley, BU - 2:06.51

400-Meter Hurdles

1. Sheryl Morgan, NU - 57.41