By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
At the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station over the weekend, Baylor track and field finished the two-day meet with 10 athletes recording new personal bests in their respective events.
“On the track side, we had a lot of PRs, but not a lot of wins,” head coach Michael Ford said. “I was impressed with Mariah Ayers to run a 23.6 in her 200 meters. I was also glad to see Morgan Stewart, Kiara Rhodes and Alyssa Miller compete. They’ve been out so far this season. Of course, we rested a lot of others, like Johnny Brackins, Trey Fields and Ackera Nugent. We have a long list of kids that we just want to train through this week to get that last push towards conference and being at Tech next week is our last tune-up.”
On the first day, senior pole vaulter Tuesdi Tidwell finished third in women’s pole vault with 13-9, and sophomore pole vaulter Alex Kubicek finished with a season-best 12-11. Junior pole vaulter Rylie Smith tied her personal best of 11-11¾ and took home a silver medal in the B group.
On the second day, senior sprinter Matthew Moorer took home his fourth-consecutive gold medal victory in the 200-meter dash with a time of 20.89 seconds. Senior sprinter Isaiah Cunningham finished in 12th behind his season-best 21.45 seconds.
In the women’s 200-meters dash, three Bears found themselves with season or personal best time. Junior sprinter Mariah Ayers had a season-best time of 23.67 seconds, earning her a fourth place finish. Senior and sophomore sprinters Demitra Carter (24.21) and Bria Bullard (24.60) both picked up season-bests, with Bullard’s time being a personal best.
Senior distance runner Ryan Day finished eighth in the mile with a personal-best time of 4:13.67.
“I was looking forward to seeing some of our distance kids run this weekend,” Ford said. “I was happy with Ryan Day and Ryan Hodge in the mile. That was a good opener for both of them, since they have not run all winter. I was also very pleased with Taylor Whitfield and Hayden Gold breaking five minutes in the mile. Hopefully, we will steadily improve next week to get a last push going into conference.”
Up next, the Bears will travel to Lubbock for the Texas Tech Shootout on Friday and Saturday.
