Jan. 11, 2008
Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Baylor men's and women's track and field teams claimed seven event victories at the Arkansas Invitational. The Bears took the top two spots in the 400 meters and the Lady Bears finished first and second in the 800 meters in the opening meet of the indoor season.
"This was a good opener for our team," said head coach Todd Harbour. "We got some good races under our belts for only having been back at practice for one week. We also did not bring a lot of upperclassmen, so we got a lot of experience for our younger runners."
Courtney Thomas started the Bears off with a victory in the 200 meters with a time of 21.65.
Quentin Iglehart-Summers led the Bears to a 1-2 finish in the 400 meters with a provisional qualifying time of 47.02. Justin Boyd clocked 47.47 for second place, while Marcus Boyd ran 48.09 to finish sixth. Lazlo Vandracsek finished 13th with a time of 49.36.
Trey Harts won the men's 200 meter championship final with an NCAA provisional time of 21.21.
Danielle Bradley won the women's championship mile with a time of 4:51.79. After battling for the lead through the first 800 meters, Bradley started her kick and cruised to a six-second win.
Lauren Hagans won the women's 800 meter championship final, barely edging Nichole Jones on the final straightaway. Hagans recorded a provisional qualifying time of 2:08.69 while Jones clocked 2:09.03 to miss a provisional time by three-hundredths of a second. Leigh Ann Ganzar finished in fifth place with a time of 2:11.45.
Jones came back 35 minutes later to win the women's 3,000 meter championship final in a time of 9:45.22. The sophomore battled for the lead for the majority of the race, and started her kick at the bell-lap. Jones quickly pulled away from the competition, winning the race by four seconds. Renae Van Wyhe finished fifth with a time of 9:57.20, while Caitlin Fairly (10:27.91) and Katie Shaw (10:52.11) finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
The men's 4x400-meter relay won with a provisional qualifying time of 3:09.70. Marcus Boyd led off with a 47.3 split and came through the first exchange in a dead heat with TCU. Justin Boyd split 47.0 to take the lead for the Bears. James Gilreath ran a 47.9 leg to keep Baylor in the lead heading into the anchor leg. Iglehart-Summers split 47.2 as Baylor cruised to the win.
The 4x400-meter relay win is the 14th-straight event final win for the Bears against collegiate competition. Baylor has won 16 of its last 17 races against NCAA teams. The race is also the seventh straight indoor that Baylor recorded at least an NCAA provisional time.
"The afternoon was tough for us, but we came back and made up for it during the evening session," said Harbour. "Marcus Boyd and Justin Boyd both ran great in the open 400 meters and on the relay. I thought that James Gilreath ran a really good 800 meters and had a good leg on the relay. Carla Grace was really good for us too, and she PR'ed (personal record) in the 60 meters."
Harts and Thomas finished third and fourth, respectively, in the men's 60 meter championship finals. Jeremy Jackson placed fourth in the men's 60-meter hurdles championship finals with a time of 8.07.
Gilreath took third overall, and finished as the second collegiate runner, in the men's 800 meter championship final with a time of 1:51.62.
Logan Roberts finished 25th in the men's 800 meters with a time of 2:02.22, while Joseph Hawkins ran 2:05.15 to finish in 31st place. Ben Haby took seventh in the men's mile in 4:20.19, while Michael Williams placed 11th with a time of 4:27.26.
Jordan Hiller took 16th in the men's 3,000 meters with a time of 8:57.03. Jeff Sadler clocked 9:01.66 to finish in 16th place overall.
Adrian Edmonds finished third in the men's shot put with a best throw of 14.40m (47-03).
The men's distance medley relay of Williams, Hawkins, Roberts and Haby clocked 10:43.96. Jacob Jones ran 9:08.92 in the men's 3,000 meter championship finals to finish in 14th place overall.
Tiffany Townsend ran 7.58 in the 60 meter finals to place fourth overall. Jessica Gregory ran 7.60 to place fifth and Brittany Carr clocked 7.61 to finish sixth.
In the 60 meter consolation finals, Carla Grace ran a personal best 7.48 to finish second overall.
Rachael Long clocked 8.80 to finish second in the 60-meter hurdles consolation finals. DeAna Carson ran 8.96 to finish fifth.
Townsend clocked 24.15 in the 200 meter championship heat to place third overall.
Carr led the women's 200 meter runners with a time of 24.68 to finish in seventh place overall. Mardavia Lynch (25.93) finished in 26th place, while Carson (26.27) and Gregory (26.29) finished 28th and 29th, respectively.
Katrina Taylor finished 11th overall in the women's 400 meters with a time of 57.29. Brittany Bruce took 18th place in 58.81, while Rachael Long (1:00.38) and Nafalya Francis (1:04.84) placed 24th and 31st, respectively.
The women's 4x400-meter relay finish in third place with a time of 3:43.42. Bruce led off with a time of 57.7 through the first exchange. Grace split 54.2 and Townsend ran a 56.3 split, handing off to Taylor in fourth place. Taylor split 54.8 and edged Oklahoma at the finish line.
Loren Hodges (2:18.36) and Kathryn Benvegnu (2:18.66) led the way for the Lady Bears in the women's 800 meters to finish in ninth and 10th, respectively. Lauren Simpson clocked 2:19.27 to finish 12th and Brittany Harlan finished 13th in 2:19.76. Sydney Jackson placed 20th overall with a time of 2:26.43.
In the women's high jump, Kayla Smith cleared a height of 1.53m (5-00 1/4) to finish in 11th place overall. Kaleigh Teel vaulted 3.52m (11-06 1/2) in the women's pole vault to finish in a tie for 12th place. Ashley Korol cleared a height of 3.32m (10-10 3/4) to finish in 18th place overall.
"We had a lot of runners that set PRs today," said Harbour. "It's still early, and we had a couple of athletes that had some minor injuries. Hopefully we can get healthy and come back better in a couple of weeks."
The Bears are off next weekend before another trip to Fayetteville for the Arkansas Open on Jan. 25-26.
