By Tori Jackson
Reporter
After a bye week, the Baylor track and field teams are refueled and ready to compete in the Texas A&M Aggie Invitational.
For the second time this season, the Bears will travel to College Station to run the lanes of the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. The Texas A&M Aggie Invitational began this morning and will conclude Saturday evening.
Texas A&M will also host Arizona State, Houston, LSU, Tennessee, UCLA, UTEP and Big 12 rival TCU. Baylor has already competed against the Aggies and the Horned Frogs this season at the Texas A&M 10-Team Invitational.
Senior sprinter and hurdler Tiffani McReynolds is confident in her teammates and their abilities to conquer their Big 12 opponent.
“I’m confident we’ll do well against TCU,” McReynolds said. “They have some pretty good sprinters so it will be good competition for our team.”
Both the Baylor men and women’s track and field teams finished second in their season opener in College Station late January. The women tallied a score of 120 points compared to TCU’s 37 and the men scored a 91.50 against TCU’s 51. A&M placed first in both the men and women’s categories.
“I would like both the women’s and men’s teams to run faster times and continue to move up in the conference rankings,” McReynolds said.
Both the men and women are ranked in the NCAA Indoor top 25. The women are 21st and the men are 24th.
“I think our team is a championship team,” sophomore middle distance runner Olicia Williams said. “We have a lot of work to do, but we’re not far off from a Big 12 title.”
The men’s and women’s indoor teams are ranked third in the Big 12 Conference.
“We are in a good place right now,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “We just have to try to keep them healthy.”
McReynolds said she is looking forward to racing again, so she can get back into her rhythm of running hurdles.
At her first meet of the season, McReynolds finished fourth in the Women 60 meters and second in the women 4×400 meter relay along with Wylie senior Michelle Nwachukwu, Cedar Hill senior Alyssa Nichols and Chicago junior Raena Rhone.
“I performed pretty well at the opener, but it wasn’t my best,” McReynolds said. “At this meet I would like to either run a faster time than I did in Kentucky or just remain consistent.”
After an action-packed weekend in College Station, the Bears will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 14 and 15.
The Big 12 Indoor Championships will begin Feb. 28 at Iowa State University.
