April 24, 2009

Photo Gallery

DES MOINES, Iowa - Baylor defended relay titles in the women's distance medley and the men's 4x200-meters, and Katie Shaw won the 10,000 meters at the 100th Drake Relays.

Shaw won the 10,000 meters with a personal-best time of 36:22.35. After making her 10K debut at the Drake Relays last season, Shaw took the lead with six laps remaining and held on for a five-second win. The 10,000 meters win is the third for Baylor in Drake Relays history, with Lisa Stone winning consecutive races in 1990 and 1991, and marks just the 11th individual title for the Lady Bears at the Drake Relays.

The women's team defended its Drake Relays title, winning the distance medley relay with a time of 11:12.75, the third-fastest time in the world this year. Nichole Jones led off the race on the 1,200-meter leg, holding second through the three laps to clock a 3:27 split. Katrina Taylor held second place, gaining on Stanford through the 400 meters with a split of 54.0 seconds.

Kathryn Benvegnu remained in second place through the 800-meter leg with a 2:12 split, handing off in a dead heat for second place with UC Riverside with Stanford still in the lead.

Over the first lap and a half of the 1,600-meter leg, Stanford held the lead, with UC Riverside, Minnesota, Kent State and Baylor's Erin Bedell in the chase pack. Soon, the pack caught the leader and the lead pack ran together over the next lap and a half. With one lap remaining, UC Riverside's Brenda Martinez made a move into first place, with Bedell close behind. At the 200-meter mark, Bedell started her kick, pulling away from Martinez for the win with a 4:37 split.

"I knew that I had the longest of the four legs, so there would be plenty of time to catch the leader," said Bedell. "The four of us packed up, so I just tried to stay relaxed. During the race I was just focused on trying to help my team. The Drake Relays crowd was great and really gave me a boost. I wanted to wait as long as I could before I started my kick. I went with the UCR anchor at the 400-meter mark and I still felt good at the 200-meter mark, so I just went for it."

The men's 4x200-meter relay won the Drake Relays title for the third-straight year with a time of 1:22.01, the first time a school has won three straight 4x200-meter relays since SMU from 1964-66. Baylor wins its 10th Drake Relays 4x200-meter relay all-time, tying Illinois and Texas for the most 4x200-meter relay titles in Drake Relays history.

"We are really excited because we were able to lower our time that we ran at Texas Relays," said anchor-leg Trey Harts. "We have wanted to develop Baylor in the short sprints rather than just Quartermile-U. We have been able to do that recently, and being able to win at the Drake Relays is just icing on the cake."

Also at the Distance Carnival, Jodi Hulett lowered her personal-best time in the 5,000 meters, clocking an NCAA regional qualifying mark of 16:45.03 to finish third overall. In addition, freshman Samantha Patty clocked 16:48.48 to record an NCAA regional qualifying time and finish fifth overall.

Both men's and women's 4x100-meter relays won their preliminary heats and qualified for Saturday's event finals. The women's squad recorded the fastest time of the qualifying heats at 44.60, while the men's team clocked 39.89 to record the fastest preliminary time.

Harts and Whitney Prevost qualified for the finals of the men's 100 meters. Harts won his heat in 10.58, the third-fastest time of the preliminaries, while Prevost clocked 10.67 to finish second in his heat and fifth overall. Jessica Gregory clocked a time of 12.14, the sixth-fastest of the preliminary heats, to advance to the finals of the women's 100 meters.

The men's and women's 4x400-meter relays both won qualifying heats and advanced to the event finals on Saturday. The women clocked a time of 3:40.93, highlighted by Diamond Richardson passing the Michigan anchor on the final turn with a 53.3-second split to give Baylor the heat win. Baylor recorded the sixth-fastest time of the preliminary heats.

The men's squad recorded a time of 3:09.54, using three different runners than the relay team that clocked a time of 3:02.68 at Texas Relays. LeJerald Betters ran the opening leg in 46.5 to give Baylor a 20-meter lead that the Bears never relinquished.

Baylor returns to action on Saturday for the final day of competition at the 100th Drake Relays.