March 10, 2017

Complete Results

Running in the second heat of the 200-meter semifinal, Willis used a good start to power him through the curve and then held on to finish in 20.83, which was just the third-best time in his heat. However to advance to Saturday's finals, the Upper Marlboro, Md., product need to be among the top eight times across all 16 competitors in the event.

With two more heats to race after he crossed the line, Willis was sitting with the fourth-fastest mark, but two runners finished faster than him in the third heat, bumping him to sixth with one heat to go. In that heat the first two runners finished ahead of the BU sprinter's time, while the third runner, Oregon's Marcus Chambers, tied him at 20.83. When the 20.83 time of each runner was expanded to thousandths of a second, Willis advanced as the eighth and final qualifier 20.825 to 20.827.

The freshman Bear was BU's final participant on the opening day, but was the lone competitor out of four track entries to advance to Saturday's event finals.

In Baylor's lone field event, senior Cion Hicks opened the day by finishing ninth in the shot put competition with a best mark of 55-0 [16.76m]. The Killeen, Texas, product opened with a toss of 52-11 [16.13m], which put her in seventh after one round of throws by the 16 competitors. She tallied her best throw of the day on her second attempt to move from 10th up to eighth. After the first three attempts, Hicks was ninth in the competition to be the final athlete to earn three more throws in the finals of the event. However in the finals, Hicks fouled on all three attempts to remain ninth - just one spot away from All-America honors.

Both of Baylor's 400-meter runners nearly missed out on advancing to Saturday's finals. First in the women's quarter mile, junior Leticia De Souza produced the seventh-fastest time in school history (52.89), but she finished with the 10th-fastest mark at the meet - two spots away from advancing. She was in the back of her heat as the runners completed their first lap on the 200-meter track, but moved up to third with 175 meters to go and stayed in that spot for the rest of the race. De Souza missed on the finals by .22 seconds.

On the men's side in the 400 meters, senior George Caddick finished 11th with a time of 46.70. He was third in his heat with 200 meters to go, but closed strong over the final 100 meters and moved up to second at the finish line. Caddick was .31 seconds away from the eighth and final qualifying spot.

On the women's side in the 200 meters, sophomore Taylor Bennett placed 14th with a time of 23.43. She got off to a slow start and was never able to keep pace with the first-place finisher in her heat, Oregon's Deejah Stevens, who set a collegiate record with a world-leading mark of 22.28, but was later disqualified. Bennett finished with 15th in the event last season with a time of 23.49.

OTHER NOTABLES
- Willis is Baylor's 10th finalist (six different athletes) in the 200-meter event at the NCAA Indoor Championships and the first since Trayvon Bromell won the event in 2015.

TOP QUOTE
"I am very honored that he ran well. Going into the season one of the things we talked about was making it to nationals. Once you get here anything can happen. We just kept talking about executing his race and he did it. He follows in a great history of Michael Johnson, Trey Harts and Trayvon Bromell, so I am really proud of him." - associate coach Michael Ford on Maxwell Willis

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor's second day of action at the NCAA Indoor Championships begins with Annie Rhodes in the pole vault at 4 p.m. BU's participation on the track beings with Willis running in the 200-meter final at 5:50 p.m. and concludes with the women's 4x400-meter relay at 6:30 p.m.

To stay current on all things Baylor Track, follow the team on Twitter: @BaylorTrack.

COMPLETE BAYLOR RESULTS
200 Meters - Semifinal
Women
14. Taylor Bennett (SO) - 23.43

Men
8. Maxwell Willis (FR) - 20.83q

400 Meters - Semifinal
Women
10. Leticia De Souza (JR) - 52.89 (7th-fastest time in school history)

Men
11. George Caddick (SR) - 46.70

Shot Put
Women
9. Cion Hicks (SR) - 55-0 [16.76m]