Track: Millar Reaches Provisional Standard at Drake Relays
4/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
April 27, 2001
Lanie Millar posted the second-fastest 800-meter time in school history at 2:07.00, reaching NCAA provisional qualification standards along the way, as Baylor competed here Friday in the 92nd Drake Relays at Jim Duncan Track/Drake Stadium.
Only Jill Chertudi, who ran the 800 meters in 2:06.70 in Tucson, Ariz., during the 1997 season, is listed ahead of Millar. The converted quarter-miler, who had won each of her previous four 800-meter races this season, finished sixth in easily the toughest field she has faced this year.
"Her time just keeps dropping," Baylor head coach Clyde Hart said. "Lanie is just a tough kid."
Meanwhile, Ssereta Lafayette, Chava Demart, Keisa Brown and Barbara Petrahn teamed to finish second in the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:33.19. Georgia edged the Bears by just five hundredths of a second (1:33.14) as Sonja Collins and Petrahn went shoulder-to-shoulder in lanes four and five, respectively, down the last straightaway.
"That was a tough one to lose," Hart said. "Georgia gave us a good run. Our girls worked really hard."
Baylor's men's 4x1-mile relay team of Matt Chance, Nick Devenport, Jon Capron and Ferenc Bekesi finished fourth with a time of 16:47.79. Sky Jones finished 10th in the pole vault, clearing 5.02 meters (16-5 ?).
The men's 4x800 team was ill fated as anchor Floyd Thompson was tripped coming out of the final turn. Thompson was in a four-way battle for third as Southern Methodist and Minnesota had pulled away from the pack, and the Baylor senior had begun to make a move up in that four-team pack. Instead of progressing, the Bears finished 15th at 7:36.62.
Baylor advanced out of the preliminary rounds Friday in three events, highlighted by the men's 4x400-meter relay team. The Bears, who have won the 4x400 nine-consecutive years at the Drake Relays, ran a 3:05.51 clocking. Zsolt Szeglet, Bayano Kamani, Joel Martin and Brandon Couts combined for the fastest time of the preliminary round, well ahead of Arizona State's 3:06.69 and Minnesota's 3:06.79.
Lafayette ran the second-fastest time in the 100-meter preliminaries at 11.71 seconds. She also joined Demart, Brown and Petrahn for the fourth-fastest time in the 4x100-meter preliminaries at 45.18 seconds.
The surprise of Friday's action, unfortunately for Baylor, came in the women's 4x400. The Baylor quartet of Tiffany Wise, Demart, Brown and Millar ran 3:40.17, finishing second to Notre Dame in the third of five heats. The five heat winners and the next three fastest times advanced to Saturday's finals, Baylor's mark was ninth, four tenths of a second slower than eighth-place Tulsa (3:39.77). This marks the first time in eight years that the women's final will be without Baylor, which had won six of the last seven.
"I just miscalculated, and that happens when you are trying to run a lot of people in a lot of different events," Hart said. "It was my call on the (women's) relay to not run Barbara (Petrahn), we were just trying not to over-use her. But if we run the way we're capable of running, we could have made it. Maybe we run Barbara and we win (the heat), but we might have won the battle and lost the war in the long run."
Competition in the 92nd running of the Drake Relays will conclude here Saturday. Baylor athletes will be in action all day, highlighted by action in three invitational events.
Jim Autenreith, who reached the NCAA provisional qualification threshold last weekend at the Michael Johnson Classic, will compete in the invitational pole vault. Brandon Couts and Zsolt Szeglet, currently ranked 14th and 21st, respectively, nationally, will compete in the invitational 400 meters. Bayano Kamani, ranked sixth in the world and No. 1in the nation, and Michael Smith, ranked 18th in the world and No. 2 in the nation, will showcase the invitational 400-meter hurdles.
