Track Splits to Stanford and Arizona State
3/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
March 24, 2011
STANFORD - Meet Schedule | Heat Sheets/Live Results | Flotrack
ARIZONA STATE - Meet Schedule | Heat Sheets | Live Results
WACO, Texas - Baylor's track and field team will send a select group of distance runners to the Stanford Invitational on Friday in Palo Alto, Calif., while the rest of its crew will face the competition at the Arizona State Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Tempe, Ariz.
Despite being in only the second week of the outdoor season, Baylor men and women have a combined 29 marks ranked in the top 50 in the NCAA. Those marks came from a highly competitive opening meet at TCU, which featured six event wins by Baylor.
Thrower Skylar White, who earned All-America honors in the discus last season, kicked off her season in grand fashion. The sophomore won both the shot put and discus throw at the meet, recording marks of 52 feet, 10.25 inches and 164-7 in the two events.
With even more depth in the field events this year, Baylor also got TCU Invite victories from Dess Meek in the women's high jump and Joe Farley in the men's pole vault. Meek took the title clearing a bar of 5-8.75, while Farley vaulted over 16-2 to win.
On the track, sophomore Christina Holland and senior Leigh Ann Ganzar each began their seasons on the right foot. Holland raced past the field by nearly two seconds to win the 400-meter hurdles in 1:00.31, while Ganzar shaved four seconds off her personal best in the 800 meters to win a close race with a time of 2:09.52.
Along with Holland, White and Meek's top-10 West Region marks, the Baylor women have a group of others who posted solid opening performances. Junior Diamond Richardson ran a career best of 23.52 in the 200 meters to rank fifth in the region, and also anchored the women's 4x400-meter relay team to the fifth-best regional time of 3:38.27. She was joined by Brittany OgunMokun, Brittany Bruce and Christina Holland.
On the men's side, Baylor posted four top-10 regional marks, including the third-best 4x400-meter relay time of 3:09.21 by Dennis Scruggs, James Gilreath, Joe Barb and Gabriel El Hanbli. A freshman, El Hanbli also posted a career-best time and the fourth-best regional mark in the 400-meter hurdles of 50.83. Also on the track, sophomore Gavyn Nero posted the region's 10th-fastest 800-meter time at 1:51.16.
In the field events for the men, school-record javelin thrower Nick Lyons opened the year with a solid mark to rank seventh in the region. Lyons' throw of 216-3 placed him second at the TCU Invite.
Baylor's group of indoor All-Americans will see their first action of the outdoor season, after taking a one-week break after the NCAA Indoor Championships. For the women, hurdler Tiffani McReynolds, sprinter Tiffany Townsend and triple jumper Jessica Ubanyionwu will all be in the ASU Invite field. On the men's side, sprinters Whitney Prevost and Woodrow Randall, along with quartermilers Marcus Boyd, Zwede Hewitt and Drew Seale will each be back in action.
Baylor will be in action starting at the Stanford Invite at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 26, at Cobb Track and Angel Field. In the Arizona State Invite, the men's pole vault will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, while the action will start at 10 a.m. in the field and 5 p.m. on the track on Saturday at Sun Angel Stadium.
Players Mentioned
