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Track and Field Set for U.S. Olympic Team Trials
June 25, 2008
WACO, Texas - Seven current members of the Baylor track and field team are set for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials which begin on Friday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Also, eight former Baylor athletes will compete at trials.
Athletes must achieve either an automatic “A” or provisional “B” qualifying mark during the 2007 or 2008 calendar years to be eligible to compete at the Olympic trials.
Leading the Baylor contingent are quartermilers LeJerald Betters and Quentin Iglehart-Summers. Betters finished third in the 400 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships earlier this month and became the 10th member of Baylor’s 44-Club by clocking a time of 44.83. Iglehart-Summers recorded a personal-best time of 45.46 to finish second at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. Both athletes ran a leg on Baylor’s outdoor 4x400-meter relay championship team that won its fourth straight title.
Betters holds the seventh-fastest time of the entries, while Iglehart-Summers ranks 19th in the field.
Also competing are Robert Griffin and Justin Boyd in the 400-meter hurdles. Griffin, a freshman who graduated from high school in December to take part in spring football drills, finished third at the NCAA Championships this month, and ran to Big 12 and Midwest Region titles this spring. Boyd finished third at the Big 12 and Midwest Region Championships and earned All-America honors with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Griffin has recorded the 16th-fastest time among the 400-meter hurdlers, while Boyd holds the No. 27 time at the trials.
Three Lady Bears will also be competing this weekend. Lauren Hagans will run in the women’s 1,500 meters with an entry time of 4:15.43. Hagans set and broke the school record in the event three times this season, and earned her first-career individual outdoor All-America honor with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships. She enters competition with the 22nd-fastest time in the field.
Carla Grace will compete in the women’s 200 meters with a season-fastest time of 23.09. Grace, a three-time All-American this season, holds the 32nd-fastest time in the event. Nichole Jones will also compete in the trials in the 800 meters. Last season Jones ran 2:04.69 at the NCAA Championships to set a new school record and earn All-America honors. Last week she finished fourth in the women’s 1,500 meters at the USA Junior Championships.
Baylor will also have seven former track and field athletes competing at the Olympic trials, led by Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner. The No. 1-ranked 400 meter runner in the world enters the weekend with the fastest qualifying time of 43.45 run last summer. Darold Williamson, who anchored the USA to a gold medal in the 4x400-meter relay in Athens will also compete in the 400 meters with the fifth-fastest qualifying time at 44.68.
Reggie Witherspoon, a two-time national champion for Baylor, will compete in both the 200 and 400 meters this weekend, while former All-American Jerome Miller will run in the men’s 110-meter hurdles. Floyd Thompson will compete in the 800 meters at the trials, while Lakadron Ivery (200 meters) and Angel Perkins (400-meter hurdles) will also compete over the next week. Also competing in the trials is distance runner Kyle King who holds the 14th-fastest time in the 5,000 meters.
In addition, Sanya Richards, who trains in Waco with Clyde Hart, will compete in the women’s 400 meters with the fastest qualifying time at 49.27.
Television coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials will begin on Saturday, June 28 and continue until Sunday, July 6 on USA and NBC. Complete coverage, including start times and live results can be found at www.USATF.org.
Date – Times – Network June 28 - 12:00-1:00 a.m. - USA June 28 - 8:00-9:00 p.m. - NBC June 29 - 7:00-8:00 p.m. - NBC June 30 - 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. - USA July 3 - 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. - USA July 4 - 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. - USA July 5 - 5:00-6:00 p.m. - NBC July 6 - 7:00-9:00 p.m. - NBC
FRIDAY EVENTS 6:30 p.m. – Womens’ 400m Hurdles Quarterfinals (Angel Perkins) 7:05 p.m. – Men’s 400m Hurdles Quarterfinals (Robert Griffin, Justin Boyd) 8 p.m. – Women’s 800m Quarterfinals (Nichole Jones) 8:20 p.m. – Men’s 800m Quarterfinals (Floyd Thompson) 8:40 p.m. - Men's 5,000m Semifinals (Kyle King)
SATURDAY EVENTS 3:55 p.m. – Women’s 400m Hurdles Semifinals (Angel Perkins) 4:10 p.m. – Men’s 400m Hurdles Semifinals (Robert Griffin, Justin Boyd) 4:25 p.m. – Women’s 800m Semifinals (Nichole Jones) 4:40 p.m. – Men’s 800m Semifinals (Floyd Thompson)
SUNDAY EVENTS 3 p.m. – Women’s 400m Quarterfinals (Sanya Richards) 4:02 p.m. – Women’s 400m Hurdles Finals (Angel Perkins) 4:17 p.m. – Men’s 400m Hurdles Finals (Robert Griffin, Justin Boyd) 4:24 p.m. – Men’s 400m Quarterfinals (LeJerald Betters, Quentin Iglehart-Summers, Jeremy Wariner, Darold Williamson, Reggie Witherspoon)
MONDAY EVENTS 7:10 p.m. – Women’s 400m Semifinals (Sanya Richards) 7:25 p.m. – Men’s 400m Semifinals (LeJerald Betters, Quentin Iglehart-Summers, Jeremy Wariner, Darold Williamson, Reggie Witherspoon) 8:15 p.m. – Women’s 800m Finals (Nichole Jones) 8:25 p.m. – Men’s 800m Finals (Floyd Thompson) 9:40 p.m. - Men's 5,000m Finals (Kyle King)
THURSDAY EVENTS 7:30 p.m. – Women’s 1,500m Quarterfinals (Lauren Hagans) 8:05 p.m. – Women’s 400m Finals (Sanya Richards) 8:15 p.m. – Men’s 400m Finals (LeJerald Betters, Quentin Iglehart-Summers, Jeremy Wariner, Darold Williamson, Reggie Witherspoon)
FRIDAY EVENTS 6:50 p.m. – Men’s 200m Qualifying (Reggie Witherspoon) 7:20 p.m. – Women’s 200m Qualifying (Carla Grace, Lakadron Ivery) 8:25 p.m. – Women’s 1,500m Semifinals (Lauren Hagans)
SATURDAY EVENTS 11:25 a.m. – Men’s 100m Hurdles Qualifying (Jerome Miller) 11:50 a.m. – Women’s 200m Quarterfinals (Carla Grace, Lakadron Ivery) 12:10 p.m. – Men’s 200m Quarterfinals (Reggie Witherspoon) 1:45 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles Quarterfinals (Jerome Miller) 2:05 p.m. – Women’s 200m Semifinals (Carla Grace, Lakadron Ivery) 2:29 p.m. – Men’s 200m Semifinals (Reggie Witherspoon)
SUNDAY EVENTS 3:15 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles Semifinals (Jerome Miller) 4:05 p.m. – Women’s 1,500m Finals (Lauren Hagans) 4:25 p.m. – Women’s 200m Finals (Carla Grace, Lakadron Ivery) 4:40 p.m. – Men’s 200m Finals (Reggie Witherspoon) 5:30 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles Finals (Jerome Miller) |
