Great weather brought great results for the Baylor track and field teams at the Michael Johnson Dr Pepper Classic on Saturday in Waco.

The women led the day bringing home eight of the 10 total wins for the Bears.

“We had a really solid performance,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “Nobody did anything crazy; it was just good across the board.”

The Baylor women’s distance crew took advantage of their lone home meet of the year by claiming victories in three events. In addition, the women’s team claimed a victory in the 100 hurdles with sophomore Tiffani McReynolds, along with four field events and the 4×100-meter relay.

The men added two victories throughout the day with their dominant 4×100-meter relay team and a strong performance by senior Kyle Cash in the high jump.

In her career first 3,000-meter steeplechase, freshman Rachel Johnson started off strong with an early lead.

“I was a little nervous just because I’d never done it before,” Johnson said. “But Coach Harbour has a lot of confidence in me, so that made me feel a lot better.”

Johnson finished the race with a time of 10:56.10, grabbing the victory with more than 20 seconds to spare.

Freshman Erin Hegarty and junior Cate Westenhover brought home the other two distance wins for the women – Hegarty in the 5,000-meter and Westenhover in the 1,500-meter run.

“(Johnson) did a really good job and Cate (Westenhover) looked really good in the 1,500, and Erin ran a really solid 5K and won pretty easily, so they all did a really nice job,” Harbour said.

The four women’s field events were split between three athletes who have been dominant all season – sophomore Erin Atkinson, junior Skylar White, and senior Jessica Ubanyionwu.

Atkinson threw for a new school record in the first event of the day with a hammer throw of 202-10, winning the event by 26 feet. She now ranks No. 11 in the NCAA and No. 2 in the Big 12, only three weeks before the Big 12 Championships.

White claimed two wins on Saturday for the second week in a row with a discuss toss of 177-0 and a shot put throw of 55-3.

“Erin (Atkinson)’s hammer throw was really nice after being hurt and not throwing for two weeks, and Skylar (White) had her typical day,” Harbour said.

Lastly, Ubanyionwu found victory in the triple jump for the second week in a row with a distance of 40-11.50.

“It’s nice to have a balanced track team,” Harbour said about the success the field performers have enjoyed.

Sophomore Tiffani McReynolds found two victories during the day starting with the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.20. She won again after she, along with freshman Alyssa Nichols, sophomore Justine Charbonnet, and senior Brittany Carr, led the women’s 4×100-meter relay team to victory.

Cash took the lone field victory on the men’s side Saturday after clearing a season-best high jump of 6-8.75.

Junior Eric Bostick competed in his career first sprint relay as the leadoff leg of the men’s 4×100-meter team. Sophomore Blake Heriot made his first appearance in a sprint relay since the opening meet of the season as anchor leg. Relay regulars, senior Whitney Prevost and junior Everett Walker, ran the second and third legs of the race.

“Having Woodrow (Randall) and Zwede (Hewitt) out, I’m not saying I had doubts, but I didn’t believe we were going to run that fast,” Walker said. “Bostick came out of nowhere and did what he had to do, and Whitney (Prevost) did his thing, then me getting the stick and giving it to Blake (Heriot), we ran fast. I liked it; it was pretty fun.”

The men’s 4×100-meter relay team ran well with the help of new runners, and claimed the victory in the event with a time of 39.69.

Baylor’s next meet will begin April 26 as they travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to participate in the Drake Relays. This will be the team’s final meet before the conference championships.

In a competitive field Saturday, the Baylor Bears again made a big impression.

On Saturday, the Baylor track and field team traveled to Austin for the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relay.

The Bears brought home two wins — one from the men on the track, and one from the women’s side in the field— and had many second-place finishes and personal bests.

“We had an outstanding showing a lot of ways,” the head coach Todd Harbour said. “It’s hard to win Texas Relays because you have the best in country. It’s really an honor to even win one, but we get a little greedy sometimes and would like to win a couple of them.”

The Baylor men’s team, consisting of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., junior Justin Allen and seniors Whitney Prevost of Texas City, Zwede Hewitt of Trinidad and Tobago, and James Gilreath of Bartlett, Tenn., captured the win in the 200-200-400-800 spring medley relay.

Going into the last leg of the race, Baylor was in second behind USC.

When Gilreath grabbed the baton for the 800 meters, he knew it was up to him to push the Bears across the finish line first. He saw an opportunity and jumped on it.

“Initially I wanted to make up as much as possible in the first lap and just get in his pocket pretty much,” Gilreath said.

“But he took out pretty quickly so I knew with the pace he took at it that I was stronger than he was so it was just a matter of time of waiting for him to falter,” Gilreath said.

Gilreath kicked it up in the last 200 meters of his race to beat out the Trojans for a win with a time of 3:17.47.

“He ran a real smart race,” Harbour said about Gilreath’s performance. “James knew what he was doing and he ran his own race and just gradually worked on him. It was an exciting race. He ran well, and he ran really smart. He ran like a senior.”

In addition the relay victory, field powerhouse DeSoto junior Skylar White won the single victory in the shot put.

“Skylar (White) did a fantastic job in the shot put. She’s just been so consistent for us,” Harbour said in a press release Saturday.

White, who threw a season-best toss of 55- 5 3/4, moved from fifth in the NCAA to fourth as she took the win.

White’s win is the first for Baylor in that event at the Texas Relays.

Another outstanding performance came from San Antonio junior hurdler Christina Holland on the first day of competition.

Holland dropped nearly two seconds off her season-best time in the 400-meter hurdles last weekend.

Entering the weekend with a season-best of 59.58, she was able to finish her race in 57.74 seconds, qualifying her for third overall in Saturday’s final.

“I was pretty excited about running so I was more willing to try new things,” Holland said.

“I just changed my race strategy. I normally just kind of get out enough and finish strong, but this time I actually started strong and then tried to hold it.”

Holland’s new record moved her from 14th in the NCAA to the top-three.

“It was a great performance for Christina (Holland),” Harbour said. “She’s been working hard, and you could kind of see that she was ready to do that.”

After last weekend, Gilreath said he is feeling more confident, and Holland is anxious to see what other big performances she can display this season.

This excitement is exactly what the team needs to keep them motivated for the rest of the season.

Most students spent spring break lying out on the beach, skiing on the slopes or just finding some way to relax. Baylor track and field, however, spent the week preparing for and competing in their first outdoor meet of the season.

The team opened the outdoor season with promising performances, bringing home a total of six wins in the two-day competition Thursday and Friday at the TCU Invitational in Fort Worth.

Many athletes shined in the field events during the first day of competition.

Sophomore Erin Atkinson, who broke the school record in the weight throw multiple times during the indoor season, shattered another school record in the hammer throw.

She busted through the previous record of 162 feet, 8 inches with a throw of 197-7, breaking the record by nearly 35 feet. After winning the event, Atkinson currently ranks first in the Big 12 and fifth in the NCAA.

Junior Skylar White also brought home a victory for the Bears in the discus throw with a solid throw of 166-9, practically a meter farther than her nearest competitor.

Her throw gives her a top rank in the Big 12 and third rank nationally.

Baylor claimed four more wins in its second day.

“It was a good, solid day for our first outdoor meet of the season,” head coach Todd Harbour said in a press release.

The men’s 4×100-meter relay, consisting of seniors Woodrow Randall and Whitney Prevost, along with junior Everett Walker and sophomore Blake Heriot, turned in the fastest time in the nation this season at 39.74 seconds.

“Our 4×1 crew looked good, and it was great to have Whitney (Prevost) back out there,” Harbour said.

The women’s 4×400-meter relay also shined in their event. Freshmen Alyssa Nichols and Raena Rhone, junior Christina Holland, and senior Diamond Richardson scooted by the competition with a finishing time of 3:39.12.

“We got a couple wins in the field events yesterday, and our distance crew came out and competed hard for a victory today,” Harbour said.

Individually, sophomore El Hanbli had a promising season-opening time of 52.65 in the 400-meter hurdles to bring home the fifth win for the Baylor Bears.

Freshman Matt Galvin scored his first collegiate victory in the 3,000-meter run. He finished in 8:45.37, leading a trio of Baylor athletes who took home the first, second and third place finishes in the event.

The Bears will travel to Orlando, Fla, this weekend for the UCF Invitational.

Baylor track and field is sending 11 athletes to Nampa, Idaho, this weekend for the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships; and they have confidence to carry them through.

“We’re very pleased with the group we’ve got,” head coach Todd Harbour said.

Baylor has several returning national competitors – senior Jessica Ubanyionwu in the triple jump, junior Skylar White in the shot put, sophomore Erin Atkinson in the weight throw, and sophomore Tiffani McReynolds in the hurdles, senior Zwede Hewitt in the relay, and junior Drew Seale in the relay.

“We’re very well represented on the ladies’ side with some women who have been there before and done, and competed at a high level,” Harbour said.

At the last chance qualifier in Arkansas, Ubanyionwu made the most of her opportunity, moving up to 5th in the NCAA with a jump of 43 feet, 2.25 inches. Before the qualifier, she was ranked 24th.

“It was more of a relief,” Ubanyionwu said. “I don’t know how I would have felt knowing I went to nationals my sophomore year, I went my junior year, but my senior year, when it matters, not going to nationals just didn’t seem like it would be an option.”

Ubanyionwu said she is excited to see field events so strongly represented this year. In the past, Baylor has been known more for track than field. Ubanyionwu said she has confidence in her field teammates and high expectations.

White, who currently holds the Baylor school record in shot put with a throw of 56-10, is headed to the championship ranked sixth. Throughout the indoor season, she brought home wins from three different meets.

Baylor’s other powerful thrower, Atkinson, is entering the weekend ranked 13th in the weight throw. She, too, holds the school record in her event with a throw of 68-4.5. This season, Atkinson won the weight throw competition in four meets.

After winning her second consecutive Big 12 Indoor Championship, McReynolds, the 2011 NCAA runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles, is hoping to claim the title this year. She is currently ranked 9th in the event.

OgunMokun, who also participated in last chance qualifiers at Notre Dame, moved from 45th to 16th in the 800-meter run. At the qualifier, she ran a school-record 2:05.30.

“She’s been ready. She’s just needed the confidence to run that fast,” Harbour said about OgunMokun’s performance at Notre Dame.

The two individual male performers, freshman Patrick Shoenball and junior Everett Walker are also looking to bring home wins.

Schoenball, who is a native of Germany, has been forced to adjust to American life, and track, quickly; but he has already made an impact. He will enter the NCAA Championship ranked 13th in the 800 meters.

Walker, a junior college transfer, is finally getting his speed back after suffering an injury early in the season.

“He’s ready,” Harbour said. “He got off to a slow start with the knee – he had surgery this fall – so it just took him a little while to get his wheels under him and get his confidence.”

The men’s 4×400 relay team, consisting of junior Justin Allen and sophomore Blake Heriot, along with Seale and Hewitt, was ranked in the top five in the nation for most of the season. Unfortunately, they were met with heavy competition at the last chance qualifier and were pushed down to 10th.

Harbour said he is confident in his relay team, along with all his competing athletes, and believes they have a good opportunity to take the win.

“You get to this meet, you have a chance to win it,” Harbour said.

The Baylor Bears will start field competition today at 4 p.m., and the last of the running events will begin at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Baylor didn’t bring home the Big 12 Team Indoor Championship title last weekend — the women finished fourth, and the men fifth — but was supported by great individual performances.

Sophomore Tiffani McReynolds claimed the 60-meter hurdles Big 12 Indoor Championship for the second year in a row.

“It feels really good,” McReynolds said. “It shows that I’m consistent and I work hard. It’s not something that’s easy.”

McReynolds said one of her goals this year was to go indoors and defend her Big 12 title. She accomplished and exceeded those goals in College Station when she won her race with a season-best time of 8.15 seconds.

McReynolds said the competition was fierce and anyone could have won.

However, McReynolds had been in the position before and understood how the pressure felt, leaving her confident in her ability to win.

“Before the race I was less nervous,” McReynolds said. “I feel like I was more confident this year.”

She said it was an amazing feeling to reach such a huge milestone in her track career.

“I couldn’t help but smile after I accomplished one of my goals. It’s just fulfilling,” McReynolds said.

The key to her success, she said, was just going out there and having fun. Earlier, she had started to look at running more as a job than as a way to have fun.

Last weekend, McReynolds said, she went out on the track and had fun running and competing; she wasn’t worried about winning or losing.

Another great performance came from junior Eric Bostick, who broke the Baylor school heptathlon record with 5,017 points.

“Our guys in the heptathlon kind of typified the whole effort for the weekend,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “They fought right down to the wire, and finishing just one point ahead of sixth, we needed everything they gave us. It was huge.”

Along with Bostick, sophomore Hunter Brook also broke the heptathlon record, which he had previously held, finishing all-conference in eighth, right behind Bostick who finished seventh.

“[Breaking the school record] is kind of like a personal competition,” Bostick said. “Somebody breaks it every time we compete, and it’s going to be nice to hold it until next year.”

Bostick said he looked to his teammates, after a poor performance in the high jump, to get him back on the winning path. He said he was inspired by Brook’s incredible performance and used that to his advantage.

After watching Brook, he was able to perform at his highest, allowing him to break the school record.

As the team prepares for the outdoor season, Bostick said he learned something from his performance at the Big 12 Championship.

“I learned to stick with it if you have a bad event,” Bostick said. “You can’t let one bad thing get you down.”

Overall, Harbour said he was satisfied with the performance of his athletes during the championship.

“We were very pleased,” Harbour said. “You obviously always want to win the Big 12, but sometimes that’s not realistic, so you go for as high of a finish as you can.”

The distance medley relay team felt the pressure when junior Gavyn Nero was unable to race due to illness.

“A lot of people picked up slack and stepped it up so we were able to recover,” Harbour said.

In addition to McReynolds picking up a win, the men’s 4×400-meter relay team finished in second, along with freshman Patrick Schoenball, senior Jessica Ubanyionwu and junior Skylar White, who each posted runner-up finishes in their events.

Juniors Cate Westenhover, Drew Seale and Brittany OgunMokun all finished third in the middle distance races.

Westenhover finished with a career-best mile of 4:45.65, the fastest for the Baylor women in three years.

“It’s tough every year. [The Big 12] is one of the top conferences in the nations, and you know what you’re getting in to,” Harbour said. “I won’t say we exceeded expectations; I think we met our expectations.”

Baylor starts its outdoor season March 17, when it travels to Fort Worth for the TCU Invitational.

Head coach Todd Harbour said he gave his athletes an A- for their performances over the weekend.

The Baylor track and field team traveled to College Station for the second time this semester, returning from the Texas A&M Invitational with four wins.

“I think that was our best performance of the year,” said Harbour. “We had more personal bests; we had more notable marks than we’ve had at any other meets so far, on both sides (men’s and women’s).”

For the fourth straight meet, sophomore Erin Atkinson won the weight throw and her field teammate, junior Skylar White, took the win in the shot put for the third time this season. The duo has now combined for seven wins so far.

On the track, sophomore Tiffani McReynolds took the win in the 60-meter hurdles while senior Brittany OgunMokun took the 800 meters with a career-best of 2 minutes, 7.74 seconds.

“We had solid performances again from our great throwers and Tiffani (McReynolds) in the hurdles,” said Harbour. “I thought Brittany was on a mission in the 800, and it was great to see her go after it like that.”

OgunMokun, who recorded her first win of the season, said everything fell into place on Saturday.

“It kind of seemed like everything just came together in terms of my workouts,” said OgunMokun. “I’m starting to see everything pay off.”

OgunMokun said she does not take all the credit for her success on Saturday.

“We actually had our first women’s Bible study of the year Thursday, so that kind of got everybody pumped up spiritually and got everybody ready emotionally for the meet,” she said.

On the men’s side of the 800, freshman Patrick Schoenball also recorded a personal best. He now ranks No. 3 in the Big 12 and No. 4 individually in Baylor history after recording a time of 1:48.47.

In the quarter-mile race, senior Zwede Hewitt led the Bears with a career best of 47.18, charging him to a third-place finish.

“I’m really satisfied with my progression,” Hewitt said. “Throughout the season I’ve been improving. Each race I got faster.”

Even after recording a career best, Hewitt still says he has work to do before the Big 12 Indoor Championship.

“I still made a couple tactical errors which I could improve on. I was coming through my 200 in the correct time, but I wasn’t doing it the correct way.”

According to Harbour, a score of A+ just doesn’t happen. There is never a complete victory. By his standards, the team did a phenomenal job.

“A lot of ladies and men are starting to step up at the right time. That’s the main thing we got out of the meet,” he said.

The team will return to College Station on Feb. 24 and 25 to compete in the Big 12 Indoor Championships.

Once again, Baylor’s track and field athletes proved they can hold their own on a national stage.

The team traveled to New York City to participate in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory Track Center over the weekend.

On the first day of competition, the Bears claimed two victories — junior Skylar White in the shot put and freshman Patrick Schoenball in the 1,000-meter race.

White, who already claims the top 10 performances in the shot put in Baylor history, broke her own school record on the first day of competition.

White tossed for 56-10 and automatically qualifies for this year’s NCAA Indoor Championship. She also holds tight to her sixth-place national ranking.

As a native German who has only been in America for a month, Schoenball was introduced to Baylor track in grandiose fashion.

“Seeing New York was amazing for me,” Schoenball said.

When asked about his competition at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, Schoenball seemed surprised by what he had experienced.

He said the competition was easier than expected.

“I waited the whole time for one guy for pace, but the last lap I think they all fell back except me and Gavyn (Nero),” he said.

Schoenball’s teammate, junior Gavyn Nero, ran hard in the last lap to finish behind Schoenball in second place.

Schoenball won his first 1,000-meter race in a Baylor jersey with a time of 2 minutes, 23.68 seconds, which shot him to the top of the Big 12 standings.

The women’s team proved to be continually spinning out winning athletes when sophomore transfer Erin Atkinson and freshman Rachel Johnson both won their events on Saturday.

Atkinson broke her own school record in the women’s weight throw to win the event.

This is the third meet in a row Atkinson has broken a school record she set. Atkinson threw for a mark of 67- 9, keeping her second in the Big 12 and seventh in the NCAA.

Johnson snatched her second Baylor win in the 3,000-meter run, beating out top runners from Toronto, LSU and Clemson. She finished with a personal best time of 9:28.27, and was followed in fifth place by teammate senior Cate Westenhover.

Overall, head coach Todd Harbour said he is happy with his team’s success, but still wants to see more.

“You always have an area you can improve in,” Harbour said.

Harbour said he and his coaching staff are still trying to get the endurance runners back to their prime.

“We’re not where we want to be as a team, but we’ve got a lot of people stepping up in different meets. Every week someone else is stepping up,” he said.

With the help of their coaches, the athletes continue to improve every week. So what makes the Baylor coach staff so successful?

One hundred and fifteen years of combined experience. Baylor is the only school in the country that has every one of its coaches as a graduate of its program. They all ran track for Baylor, and they all know what it’s like.

“We’ve all been through what these guys have been through, so we know where they’re at and what they’ve got to do. It’s no mystery,” Harbour said.

On Saturday, the team will travel to College Station for the Texas A&M Open, a familiar facility Harbour said he is excited about revisiting.

Last weekend, Baylor track headed to College Station in hopes of continuing Baylor’s athletic success.

That’s exactly what the team did. The Bears brought home seven wins from the Texas A&M Invitational, with six coming from the women.

Everyone on the team wanted to see at what level they were performing with their first meet back from Christmas break.

“I’m always anxious as a coach to see where everyone is at,” head coach Todd Harbour.

He certainly found out just how prepared his athletes are for the upcoming season.

Newcomer Blake Heriot, a sophomore who transferred from Florida, took his first run as a Baylor Bear.

“I wasn’t getting better at Florida, and I wanted to contribute at some team,” Blake said.

Heriot contributed to Baylor immediately when he brought home first place in the men’s 400-meter race with a time of 47.60.

There are many newcomers and transfers this year looking to make an impact on their new team, including freshman Rachel Johnson.

Johnson, a freshman from Plano, made a huge splash when she made her premiere on the track. Johnson ran in the women’s 3,000-meter race and recorded a time of 9:31.60, which ranks her fourth in the NCAA and fifth-best all-time at Baylor.

“It feels really great,” Johnson said. “I know God’s given me a great ability to run and I just want to do it to glorify him.”

In addition to Heriot and Johnson, sophomore Tiffani McReynolds finished first in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and currently ranks fifth in the NCAA with a time of 8.32.

Junior Skylar White now ranks third in the NCAA after she recorded a distance of 54-5 1/2 in the women’s shotput, and Erin Atkinson broke a Baylor school record when she dominated the women’s weight throw with a distance of 59-7 3/4.

Senior Jessica Ubanyionwu took first at the women’s triple jump with a distance of 41-4 1/4.

Harbour said he was very realistic about the situation despite the team’s success.

“We competed very hard, but there are still some things we need to work on,” he said.

One thing that seems to have helped Baylor prepare for this meet, and will surely help to carry them through this season, is the team dynamic.

With so many young athletes, there may be some concern about the relationships between the newcomers and the veterans.

Harbour said it is not an issue.

“They all seem to mesh really well,” he said.

“All the upperclassmen are so nice, and they’re all so sweet and we all support each other,” Johnson said.

Though she is only a freshman, Johnson said she does not feel pressure to validate her ability.

“I don’t feel like I really need to prove myself on the team as much as I feel like I need to be a part of the team and be scoring for them as much as I can and help out the team as much as I can, because all the people on the team work so hard,” Johnson said.

Heriot has the same feelings about the team dynamics out on the track.

“We’re all a family and everybody helps out everybody. Everybody stays on everybody,” Heriot said.

This supportive and encouraging environment may help the team to come together this year and push each other to succeed.

Another encouraging factor for the team comes from being a Baylor athlete during what is being called “The Golden Years” of Baylor Athletics.

“It motivates you to do better because we want to be just as good as football or basketball,” Heriot said.

Lee’s Summit, Mo., senior Brittany Bruce gives a high five to her teammate after running a race.
Nick Berryman | Lariat Photographer

El Paso junior Jessica Ubanyionwu participates in the triple jump.
Nick Berryman | Lariat Photographer

Top finishes give Bears wave of momentum

By Lindsay Cash
Reporter

Baylor’s most outstanding runners from past and present were featured on the home track last weekend at the Michael Johnson Dr Pepper Classic. World-class competitors watched as Baylor athletes and 18 other schools competed at the Hart-Patterson Track and Field Complex.

Baylor rounded up eight wins as an elite crowd of alumni reunited, signed autographs and cheered on the athletes in their footsteps.

Michael Johnson’s presence at the meet was one to be remembered. Johnson stood alongside Olympians Jeremy Wariner, Sanya Richards-Ross, Darold Williamson and Reggie Witherspoon.

“It’s such a neat thing to be a part of such an elite Baylor tradition. There were memories through the decades all meeting in one place,” Coach Todd Harbour said.

Along with the presence of Baylor Legends Raymond Pierre and the women’s 1991 4-x-800-meter relay team, it was a reunion weekend for alumni.

At the Michael Johnson/Dr. Pepper Classic on Saturday, steeplechaser Taylor Jackson competes against other Texas schools, coming in 10th at the Hart Patterson Track and Field Complex.
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photographer

“We had a reunion tent that evening for people to meet with one another. There was actually a good crowd there, despite it being Easter weekend,” Harbour said.

Each of the field event winners set personal bests and moved into the NCAA’s top 10. Walla Walla, Wash., senior Nick Lyons in the javelin broke his record for the second weekend in a row, making that the second best throw in the country. His toss hit 257 feet, 2 inches.

“Nick had good conditions and took advantage of it. He popped out an outstanding throw,” Harbour said.

In the discus, DeSoto sophomore Skylar White was busy moving from 13th to seventh place as she tossed at a career best of 178-3. In the triple jump, El Paso junior Jessica Ubanyionwu moved to sixth in the NCAA with her career-best leap of 43-2.5.

In the pole vaulting competition, pole vaulter Joe Farley placed third for Baylor.
Matt Hellman | Lariat Photographer

Wind was an intense factor during the field events, but White pushed through the conditions.

“I’m at home. I don’t care about the weather elements,” White said with a smile.

Individually on the track, the men claimed three titles, with career bests from Bartlett, Tenn., junior James Gilreath in the 800 meters and Texas City junior Whitney Prevost in the 200 meters. Repentigny, Quebec, freshman Gabriel El Hanbli joined them in victory lane in the 400-meter hurdles.

Gilreath is tied for 12th-best in the NCAA with a time of 1:48.54. Prevost’s final time was 20.70, with New Orleans junior Woodrow Randall close behind finishing in third place, at 20.80.

El Hanbli finished at 51.05 in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, steadily surging toward the finish. He was the former Canadian national champion in this particular event.

“Our men had really solid performances. With the men now ranked 10th and women 12th in the NCAA, we are in the pool of making the top four. Both teams are closing in on it, and if we keep our goals in front and our people healthy, I really think we’ve got a shot at it,” Harbour said.

For the women, Killeen senior Tiffany Townsend ran her first 200 of the season and placed fourth with a time if 23.25. Kansas City freshman Tiffani McReynolds placed second in the 100-meter hurdles at 13.02 and landed fifth in the 100 meters at 11.37. DeSoto junior Diamond Richardson landed a season-best, placing fourth in the 400 meters at 53.37.

In the women’s 800 meters, Landover, Md., junior Brittany OgunMokun finished third at 2:09.18, followed closely by Littleton, Colo., junior Leigh Ann Ganzar in fourth at 2:10.57.

Harbour’s outlook on the conclusion of the season is positive and upbeat. The team travels to participate in the Drake Relays this weekend. This site is one of Baylor’s most successful performance spots in history, and Harbour and his squad say they are geared to move into the top four by season’s end.

The track and field squad split into two groups to compete for the second weekend in outdoors fashion. The distance runners headed to Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., while the rest of the crew took Tempe, Ariz., by storm.

Sophomore Skylar White and freshman Tiffani McReynolds both set school records and propelled Baylor toward seven wins at the Arizona State Invitational.

White broke her own school shot put record with a toss of 56 feet, 3.75 inches and gained the win, while McReynolds won the 100-meter hurdles at 13.17. McReynolds shattered a 15-year-old Baylor record. Meet after meet, coach Todd Harbour said he is amazed at the athletic ability in McReynolds.

“It’s so fun to go to meets and talk to the coaches who didn’t offer her a spot because of her [petite] size. There’s a coach at every single meet who spends time wishing now they would have taken her,” Harbour said.

Along with her honor, McReynolds also came in second in a few events as well. She finished behind senior Tiffany Townsend in the 100 at 11.53, and finished right behind Texas A&M in the 4-x-100 relay with Townsend, Brittany Bruce and Diamond Richardson.

Also representing the women, senior Tiffany Townsend finished first in the 100 meters at 11.44.

And for the men, senior Marcus Boyd and freshman Gabriel El Hanbli were victorious. Boyd won the 400 meters at 46.51 and El Hanbli won the 400-meter hurdles at 51.65.

“This win for me was just a measuring stick of where I’m at, essentially,” Boyd said. “It shows I’m in pretty good shape right now.”

Juniors Woodrow Randall and James Gilreath also each landed in the top five on the track.

Both the men and women won relays as well. Boyd, Randall, junior Whitney Prevost and sophomore Marcus Thompson took the 4-x-100-meter victory, while Townsend, junior Brittany OgunMokun, senior Brittany Bruce and junior Diamond Richardson grabbed the 4-x-400-meter title.

With each passing weekend, the Bears are inching toward the outdoor championships. The competition is quality – the Arizona State Invitational featured a couple of former championship-winning universities – and Baylor consistently continues to earn titles, which Harbour said is huge.

“ASU and A&M are both former national champs, so this was a great meet with quality performances on our end,” Harbour said.

On Saturday, the teams will travel to Arlington for the Bobby Lane UTA Invitational. Harbour is expecting to see consistencies through his relay squads, in both the men and women.

“We had the No. 1 men’s relay team last year, and our relays keep getting represented well in the 4-x-100 and 4-x-400. We’re at the point of building up the reputation of being a tough relay opponent,” Harbour said.

The invitational in Arlington this weekend will host an array of Texas schools along with Baylor – Dallas Baptist University, Tarleton State University, TCU and the University of North Texas.