T&F Closes 2023 Season with Two All-American Relay Squads

Wednesday, June 7

Austin, Texas

All Day

Baylor

NCAA Outdoor Championships

Michaela Francois running the 4x1 at the NCAA Championship finals

T&F Closes 2023 Season with Two All-American Relay Squads

6/10/2023 11:26:00 PM | Track & Field

Results

4x100, 4x400 each post a top-2 spot in program history

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            AUSTIN – At least when it comes to relay teams, Baylor is clearly better than the sum of its parts.
            Without a single entrant making it to even the semifinals of the individual 100- or 400-meter races, the Bears placed fifth and eighth, respectively, in the 4x400 and 4x100 relays to earn All-America honors in Saturday's finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
            "They've trained so hard this year," Baylor coach Michael Ford said. "Just the women's team in general, they've been training hard and I would say trending upward. Every week I would look at the (USTFCCCA) rankings, and I think we started the season at 80^th, and then gradually started moving up. But I also think they got a lot more confidence in themselves.
            "I think the harder thing is making sure they believe they can run with the bigger schools. Like I told them, 'You're a bigger school, too.'''
            They certainly proved that Saturday night.
            Breaking the school record for the third-straight time and twice in the last three days, the 4x100-meter relay team of Mariah Ayers, Imaobong Uko, Bria Bullard and Michaela Francois placed eighth in 43.12 to get the Bears on the board. A sophomore, Francois ran the anchor leg and edged out USC at the line by one-hundredth of a second.
            "We had one little bad handoff on the second exchange (between Uko and Bullard). Bria put her hand back early, so it slowed the stick down a little bit," Ford said. "But they recovered, and from our angle we couldn't tell if they got eighth or sixth. It was that close. But for them to run another school record and from the dreaded Lane 1, I was really happy for them."
            Uko, who missed qualifying in the 400 meters by two-hundredths of a second at the NCAA West Prelims, said "it was a challenge" coming into Saturday's final as the ninth-fastest qualifier.
            "I'm just glad we were able to put our heads together and make it through," she said. "Even though there was a little complication with our exchange, I'm glad we were able to push through."
            Baylor was one of five teams that recorded season-best times in the 4x100 finals. Texas narrowly missed the collegiate record it set two days earlier (41.55), but still won it easily with a time of 41.60 en route to a dominating team championship with 83 points.
            In the final event of the night, Baylor's 4x400 relay recorded the second-fastest time in school history and its best finish in the event since 2009, placing fifth in 3:27.45. Arkansas posted a winning time of 3:24.05, with five-hundredths of a second separating fourth-place USC (3:27.42), Baylor and sixth-place Kentucky (3:27.47).
            "The goal coming in was just for everybody to run smart, because we've been working so hard for this. There's no reason we should get here and we should mess up anything," said sophomore Jasmine Gryne, who filled in for Kavia Francis on the third leg. "Especially for me as an alternate, to be able to come on here and run a good leg and be a part of a big team that made All-American, it's phenomenal."
            Uko ran the opening leg, followed by Gontse Morake, Gryne and Ayers, who had a blistering 50.08 anchor leg in moving from sixth to fifth before collapsing on the track.
            "If I were to critique (Gryne), I would have told her to go on the back stretch," Ford said. "She kind of let everybody get back into the race. I don't know if she trusts herself yet and this is also her first time running at nationals, too. I think (Ayers) made one critical mistake on the backstretch. Going into the last 200 meters, I thought she should have gone outside. But she tried to go inside, and then she slowed down a little bit and had to go back around."
            Uko said she wasn't surprised by Ayers' strong finish, because "she's a fighter."
            "I think where Coach Ford put her is a really good spot," Uko said. "She was able to push through for us and fight for it. Some people could have been like, 'Oh, we're this far, let's give up' But she just kept pushing."
            In the triple jump, Koi Johnson finished her season with a 17^th-place finish with a mark of 42-11 on her first attempt of the night. A five-time All-Big 12 performer between the two jumps, Johnson placed 13^th in the triple jump at last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships.
            Florida's Jasmine Moore won with a college-record mark of 48-6, edging Texas sophomore Akelia Smith (47-8 ½).
            Ackera Nugent, who won the NCAA Indoor 60-meter hurdles title two years ago as a freshman at Baylor, completed a season sweep in her first year at Arkansas by winning the 100-meter hurdles with a wind-aided time of 12.25 seconds.
            Scoring at the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the sixth-straight year, Baylor tied for 43^rd with five points. The Baylor men tallied 15.33 points to tie for 19^th, the Bears' second-straight top-20 finish.
            "All-American sounds amazing to add to my resume," said Gryne, who picked up her career-first All-America honor. "I'm excited to add it."
            While the NCAA Championships end the collegiate season and Baylor Athletics' year, the Bears are expected to have several current and former student-athletes competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships July 6-9 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Baylor track and field women's team closed out the 2023 season at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at UT's Mike A. Myers Stadium.

The Bears scored five team points in the women's competition to tie for 43^rd place, but the day was highlighted by All-American finishes that also found top-2 marks in the BU history books from the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays.

THE RUNDOWN
The 4x100 squad of Mariah Ayers, Imaobong Uko, Bria Bullard and Michaela Francois set their third-consecutive program record in the 4x100-meter relay to squeeze into the final spot on the All-American podium. The 2023 relay crew, which was assembled for their first race 42 days ago at the LSU Invitational, put every mark this season on the program's top-10 list in positions one, two, three and a tie for eighth.

In the final race of the 2023 collegiate track and field season, Uko, Gontse Morake, Jasmine Gryne and Ayers posted the second-fastest 4x400-meter relay mark in program history, a 3:27.45. Pushed by Ayers' 50.08 split on the anchor leg, the Bears crossed the line in fifth place for the best women's 4x4 finish since the bronze medal-winning mark in 2009.

Koi Johnson bowed out of the triple jump after missing the cut for the final three jumps with her third-best mark of the season at 42-11 on her first attempt. The senior finished 17^th.

QUOTABLE
Head coach Michael Ford
On the women's finish at NCAAs…
"The women's team has been training so hard all year long and trending upwards. Looking at the rankings, we started around 80^th and then we just kept moving up as they got more confident in themselves. The hardest thing was making them believe they could run with the bigger schools. I was very impressed with the 4x100-meter relay. There were some tough handoffs, but they recovered and ran another school record in the dreaded Lane One. The 4x400 got one of their highest finishes in a while. Ima [Uko] and Gontse [Morake] did an amazing job in those first two legs. It's been a long season, but I've been very impressed and proud of them."

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