Couts Earns Big 12 Weekly Honor
2/5/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Feb. 5, 2001
WACO, Texas - After reaching NCAA automatic qualifying standards in two events last Saturday at the Gator Invitaitonal in Gainesville, Fla., senior Brandon Couts was named Big 12 Conference Track Male Co-Athlete of the Week by the conference office Monday.
A native of Greenville, Texas, he shares this week's honor with Charlie Gruber of Kansas. Sara Gorton of Colorado was so honored on the women's side.
Couts is the second Bear to receive the weekly honor this season, following Bayano Kamani last week. His time of 46.71 seconds in the 400 meters Saturday not only placed first at the Gator, it is also the fastest time this year in the event. That time was also one one-hundredth of a second under the NCAA automatic threshold. Finishing second in the event was Kamani, who reached NCAA provisional standards with a time of 47.02 seconds. That gives Baylor nation's two fastest times this season in the 400.
Meanwhile, Couts also burned up the track running a 45.85-second first leg in the 4x400-meter relay. He joined Zsolt Szeglet, Floyd Thompson and Kamani to post the nation's fastest time of the year and the first NCAA automatic qualifying mark of the season at 3:06.06. That is the 25th-fastest collegiate time ever in the indoor version of the 4x400 and the fastest collegiate mark ever on a 200-meter flat track. In the race, Auburn posted the second-fastest time of the year - a distant 3:09.50.
Baylor, which is ranked eighth nationally on the men's side, will return to action this weekend, traveling to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational. Action will get underway Friday and conclude Saturday.
