Track Set for Big 12 Championships

Track & Field 5/13/2009 12:00:00 AM

May 13, 2009

WACO, Texas -

BAYLOR TRACK SET FOR BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Baylor men's and women's track and field teams hit the road this weekend as the Bears travel to Lubbock, Texas for the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the Terry & Linda Fuller Track. Baylor is coming off a solid performance two weeks ago at the Texas Invitational. The Bears recorded 16 NCAA regional marks, including two nation-leading times in the 200 meters. Live results for the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships can be found online at www.FlashResults.com or www.TexasTech.com. Complete meet recaps can be found at the conclusion of each day of competition at www.BaylorBears.com.

LAST TIME AT THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Baylor men's and women's track and field teams claimed five conference championships on the third day of competition at the 2008 Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Sunday at Potts Field. The men's team placed sixth overall with 72 points, while the women finished in a tie for seventh with 59 points. Colorado won the men's championship with 138 points, while Texas A&M claimed the women's title with 157 points. Along with its five Big 12 titles, the Bears also had 21 athletes claim 22 All-Big 12 honors, including a team high four all-conference performances from Trey Harts. The men's and women's teams swept the 4x400-meter relays to end the meet. The women posted a season-best time, while the men used two substitutes to claim their Big 12 title. Baylor's time of 3:32.28 was the fastest time of the year for the Lady Bears, improving on their previous season-best time by almost four full seconds. Baylor clocked a time of 3:36.02 at Texas Relays to finish in fourth place behind Texas A&M. The men's 4x400-meter relay won its 27th-straight race, with a winning time of 3:03.82. The Bears only ran two of their usual "A" team runners, as Harts and Quentin Iglehart-Summers were the only runners from Baylor's nation-leading time set at Texas Relays. Baylor won its 11th-consecutive outdoor Big 12 Championship, and has now won 22 straight conference titles counting indoor and outdoor Big 12 meets. LeJerald Betters won his third-straight title in the men's 400 meters. Betters won the outdoor championship last year on the way to being named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and defended his title with a conference championship during the indoor season. His time of 45.01 is a new personal best, and ranks as the 10th-best in Baylor history. Betters is the eighth-straight Baylor runner to win the 400 meter title. The Bears have also won 10 of the last 12 Big 12 championships in the 400 meters.

LAST TIME OUT
Tiffany Townsend won the women's 200 meters with an NCAA-leading time of 22.63 and Baylor recorded 16 NCAA regional qualifying marks at the Texas Invitational at Mike A. Myers Stadium. The previous nation-leading time of 22.83 was set by Arizona State's Charonda Williams at the Sun Angel Track Classic on April 11. Townsend's time was set with an NCAA-legal wind of 3.9 meters per second, just under the non-legal time of 4.0 meters per second. Townsend, who set a school record in the 200 meters eight times during the indoor season, broke her own school record of 22.75 set at last year's Big 12 Outdoor Championships. Earlier this season she set a new school mark of 11.13 in the 100 meters. Baylor also recorded 12 Top 5 finishes, including Nick Lyons who won the men's javelin with an NCAA regional mark of 63.04m (206-09). Trey Harts finished third overall, the top collegiate runner, in the men's 200 meters with a time of 20.33. The time is the second-fastest in the NCAA this season, behind Harts' 20.29 set at the Michael Johnson Classic. Thaddeus Gordon clocked his first NCAA regional mark of the season in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.37, while Chris Gowell clocked his second-straight sub-1:48 time in the 800 meters with a 1:47.73 to finish third. Diamond Richardson (54.11) and Katrina Taylor (54.18) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the women's 400 meters. Marcus Boyd took fifth in the men's 400 meters. Jessica Ubanyionwu improved her season-best in the triple jump by three feet with a leap of 12.92m (42-04 3/4) to finish third with an NCAA regional mark. Stasia Kelly-Taylor also qualified for the region meet in the triple jump with a mark of 12.42m (40-09) to take fifth place. DeAna Carson regionally qualified in the women's long jump with a mark of 6.05m (19-10 1/4) to take third, and nearly clocked a regional mark in the 100-meter hurdles, but her time of 13.71 was negated by an NCAA-non-legal wind of 4.2 meters per second.