June 10, 2017

Complete Results

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹EUGENE, Ore. - Todd Harbour and his staff will go back to the drawing board after a second straight disappointing performance at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹On Saturday's final day at Hayward Field, the Bears failed to add any more points, with triple jumpers Brianna Richardson and Rachel Toliver not qualifying for the finals and Jenna Pfeiffer moving up seven places to finish 13th in the seven-event heptathlon.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹After going scoreless at the 2016 meet, Baylor's women tied for 38th with six points from Annie Rhodes' third-place finish in the pole vault and the men tied for 74th with the one point Wil London picked up from finishing eighth in the 400 meters.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"We had a great season. You don't win a Big 12 championship without having some great athletes," Harbour said. "You've just got to be on up here. I can't put my finger on what's caused it the last two years. In '14, we had a great meet up here, we hit on all cylinders on both sides. We just didn't hit this week. I'll go back to the drawing board, and we'll look at it as a staff and try to figure out what we have to do better."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹Richardson and Toliver moved into qualifying positions at different points in the triple jump competition, with Toliver going 42 feet, 10 ¼ inches on her second attempt and Richardson popping a best leap of 43-1 ¾ on her third and final jump. But, it wasn't enough to hold on, with Oregon's Chaquinn Cook claiming the ninth spot for the finals at 43-6.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹The Baylor jumpers finished 11th and 17th, respectively, with Richardson missing the top nine by just 4 ¼ inches.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"My last chance to do it, and I came out here and competed to the best of my abilities," said Richardson, who was sixth in 2014 and 10th in 2015 before sitting out last year with a stress fracture. "I came up a little short, but I'm blessed to be here. So, I can't really complain too much."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹It looked like Richardson had close to a 44-foot jump on her second attempt, but fouled, "just a couple inches over" the line.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"That one felt like a big jump," said Richardson, who came into the meet ranked seventh with a career-best mark of 44-7. "On the last jump, I tried to go for it. I guess I didn't hold it long enough, so that was disappointing."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹Toliver said she came into Saturday's competition "hoping for 44 feet or better." And she might have come close to it, but fouled on her third attempt.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"It's such a blessing to be here right now and to be amongst all those outstanding women out there," she said. "Just to be a part of that was definitely exciting. I wish we had had better weather. Of course, I'm sure all of us did. But still, I can't be too upset or mad."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹Seeded 19th going into the meet and in 20th after the first four events, Pfeiffer had strong showings in the last two events to move up to 13th with 5,303 points. She went 17-10 ¼ in the long jump, placed third in the javelin with a best of 149-1 and fifth in the 800 meters with a 2.17.8 clocking.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"Jenna was probably the story of the day today, I thought, just how far she came and how far she's come in her Baylor career," Harbour said of the former walk-on from Bremen, Ind. "She was seeded 19th, so she moved up six places from where she was seeded coming in. That's outstanding. And that kind of typifies her career at Baylor just how far she's come. She's been a great leader for us over the years. We brought eight seniors up here, and we're going to miss all of them."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹London, a two-time All-American in the 400 meters, headlines a returning group that includes sprinters Maxwell Willis and Taylor Bennett, who both competed in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay.

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹"I think eight out of the 23 we brought up here were seniors, so that's a pretty good group coming back next year," Harbour said. "We've got a great (recruiting) class coming in on both sides, and then we left some at home this year with a couple key injuries that probably would have been competing at a pretty high level this weekend."

ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢' ¬ ¹A select number of athletes, including Rhodes and London, will be competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships June 22-25 in Sacramento, Calif., hoping to earn spots for the 2017 World Championships.

For the meet the women's squad scored six team points on the strength of Annie Rhodes' third-place finish in the pole vault on Thursday. Those six points helped BU tie for 38th in the team standings. The Baylor women have now scored at the meet in 24 of the last 29 years.

In the triple jump on Saturday, Baylor two entries, Brianna Richardson and Rachel Toliver, missed out on making the event's finals finishing 11th and 17th respectively.

Richardson and Toliver both recorded jumps of 41-7.75 [12.69m] to open the competition, which placed them 11th after one round of jumps.

Richardson then fouled on her next attempt and headed into her final jump in 19th place. The senior from Heath, Texas, saved her best for last as she carded a leap of 43-1.75 [13.15m] to move to the ninth and final qualifying spot for the finals. However moments later, Richardson was bumped to 10th and ended up 11th.

Toliver followed up her opening attempt by tallying her best mark at 42-10.25 [13.06m], which moved her to eighth at that point in the competition. Sitting in 12th going into the last round, Toliver fouled on her final attempt to miss out on the final.

Senior Jenna Pfeiffer closed out the heptathlon Saturday by competing in the long jump, javelin and 800 meters. The senior Bear racked up a total of 5,303 points over two days of competition to finish 13th overall. After being 20th after the opening day, Pfeiffer jumped up the standings with strong performances in her final two events.

In the long jump, Pfeiffer recorded her top attempt on her first jump by going 17-10.25 [5.44m]. That mark was the 17th-best in the field, garnered her 683 points and moved her up to 19th overall with 3,669 points.

Next, Pfeiffer had her best event of the competition by throwing the eight-best javelin mark in school history - 149-1 [45.45m]. That was the third-best attempt of any athlete on the day and netted the senior 772 points. Heading into the final event, Pfeiffer had moved up to 16th with a total of 4,441 points.

In the final event, Pfeiffer ran 2:17.18 in the 200 meters to secure 862 points and produce the fifth-best time of the day, which gave her the final point tally.

TOP QUOTE #1
"Overall, it was not the weekend we had hoped for. Obviously, we had some disappointments. Just a little bit off, not much, but just a little off. Up here, that's all it takes. There's national champions and collegiate record-holders that don't make the finals up here, so it's a rough meet. You've got to be on. And we weren't far off on a few, but we had hoped to do a little better. I am proud of Annie (Rhodes), proud of Wil (London) for getting in there and battling. And all of our seniors, they've had amazing careers at Baylor, and my hat's off to all of them. I can't say how much we appreciate them and all that they've done. We came up here with a good group, we hoped to do a little better team-wise, but it just didn't happen. So, we will go back, reload, we'll bring a bunch of young ones hopefully back up here next year and be ready to go." - head coach Todd Harbour on the meet

WHAT'S NEXT
Saturday's action closed out Baylor's collegiate season. Select athletes will compete at the USATF Outdoor Championships, June 22-25, in Sacramento, Calif. To stay current on all things Baylor Track, follow the team on Twitter: @BaylorTrack.

COMPLETE BAYLOR RESULTS
Triple Jump
Women
11. Brianna Richardson (SR) - 43-1.75 [13.15m]
17. Rachel Toliver (SR) - 42-10.25 [13.06m]

Heptathlon #5 - Long Jump
17. Jenna Pfeiffer (SR) - 17-10.25 [5.44m]

Heptathlon #6 - Javelin Throw
3. Jenna Pfeiffer (SR) - 149-1 [45.45m] (tied for 8th-best in school history)

Heptathlon #7 - 800 Meters
5. Jenna Pfeiffer (SR) - 2:17.18

Heptathlon Final Standings
13. Jenna Pfeiffer (SR) - 5,303 pts.