By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Like quarterbacks and baseball closers, relay anchor legs have a spotlight that constantly shines bright.
But in some ways, there is more pressure on the leadoff leg, because "if you don't get out into the race, it's over," said Baylor track coach Todd Harbour.
"That's a pressure spot," he said. "If you let your team down there, it's tough, and you've got three guys or three ladies behind you that don't have an opportunity. So, having somebody that embraces that, that likes it, that says, 'Hey, this is what I want to do,' that's a huge deal on any (4x400-meter relay). And the fact that we have a freshman in both of those spots right now, we're going to be pretty good."
Wil London and Taylor Bennett have embraced their prominent roles on the Baylor men's and women's 4x400 relay teams, earning Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships that start Friday in Birmingham, Ala.
"It's way more than I expected, that's for sure," said Bennett, a Klein Collins product who won the 100 and placed second in the 200 meters in last year's 6A state meet. "My whole goal this year was to get (Big 12) Freshman of the Year. So getting that, I was like, 'Yes, that's all I wanted to do.' I didn't expect this at all."
Taylor Bennett
Following in the footsteps of former All-American sprinters Tiffany Townsend and
Tiffani McReynolds, Bennett has "blossomed" in her first indoor season. She placed third in the 60-meter dash at the Big 12 meet (7.30), second in the 200 with a personal-best time of 23.08 that ranks as the third-fastest time in program history and ran leadoff leg on the 4x400 relay that won in 3:33.47.
"It was scary," said Bennett, who had never run indoors until the Texas A&M Invitational in January. "I remember telling Coach (Michael) Ford, 'I can't run with these girls. And he was like, 'You're going to be fine.' . . . I think I prayed like five times a day."
But Bennett said the conference indoor meet was an eye-opening experience when she realized, '''Oh, I can actually do this,' because I doubted myself the whole season until the Big 12s.Then, I was like, 'Let's just get out here and run.'''
While she might have doubted herself, Harbour said the Bears got the state's top two sprinters in in Bennett and Kiana Horton from Converse Judson. Horton won the 200 in the 6A meet last spring in 23.10 and joins Bennett, sophomore Kiana Hawn and senior Olicia Williams in the 4x400 relay.
"Kiana (Horton) is going to come on, she's going to have a great outdoor season," Harbour said. "Taylor has just blossomed. It's not really a surprise. She ran some quarters in high school, so we knew she loved the 400. She had great 100-meter speed, but she was OK running the 400, too. So, you felt like this was what she could do. But whenever you see a freshman do it, it's always a little bit of a surprise, I guess. You don't expect them to come in right off the bat."
Bennett is ranked sixth in the 200 and 14th in the 60 going into the NCAA meet, with the relay squeaking in with the 12th-best time.
"It's a great opportunity," she said, "because I feel like I still have nothing to lose since I'm a freshman. Anything I do at nationals is just a plus for me. I mean, I want to win it. I hate losing it ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" hate it, hate it, hate it. . . . Making it to the finals is my big goal."
Wil London
Compared to Bennett, London came in with enormous expectations. Last year's 5A state runner-up in the 400 meters, the local product from Waco High won the inaugural Texas Meet of Champions with a school-record time of 45.96 that ranked as the third-best prep time nationally.
With two-time national champion sprinter Trayvon Bromell turning pro after his sophomore season, London has helped fill at least a little bit of that void. He placed fourth at the Big 12 meet in the 400 meters with a personal-best time of 46.24 that ranks 14th nationally and ran leadoff leg on the 4x400 relay that won with a time of 3:04.16 to move up to No. 2 behind Florida (3:04.02).
Baylor's 4x400 relay has won nine NCAA indoor titles and earned All-American honors 26 times in the last 30 years, but had not qualified the last two years.
"I think we were the first team out last year," Harbour said. "To go from that to being back in contention to win it, that's a pretty big deal for those guys. Wil's definitely made a huge impact running the leadoff leg."
London said he "always wanted to get away (from Waco), honestly," looking at Tennessee and TCU, among others. But at Baylor, he was treated like family, "and that's exactly what I wanted to be around." "It was a plus staying in Waco with my family and being able to see people I see every day and still go around and do what I like to do. Coach (Clyde) Hart said it was going to be like that, and it hasn't failed me yet. It's just a great feeling."
Despite runner-up finishes at both the Rod McCravy Memorial and Tyson Invitational, London was nowhere near the top 16 nationally before his showing at the Big 12 meet.
"At first, I didn't think the times I was running was going to make it," he said. "But I kept working harder and harder every week and my times continued to fall. That's when I got the confidence that I could hang with everybody, even as a freshman."
His top priority, though, was getting the 4x400 relay back to nationals. With fellow freshman Caleb Dickson replacing injured senior Brandon Moore, the relay team of two freshmen plus senior Richard Gary and junior anchor George Caddick blazed to Baylor's second straight Big 12 indoor title.
"We all know we can do it, so that's the thing that's pushing us more is that we know we can win it," London said. "There's so much competition in practice that it keeps everybody on their toes. You never know who's going to be on the relay. . . It just makes us work twice as hard and keep the confidence rolling."
Baylor's entries also include Annie Rhodes and Cion Hicks, who are ranked sixth in the pole vault and shot put, respectively; Williams in the 800 meters; and triple jumper Felix Obi on the men's side.
Williams finished third last year and is ranked 17th going in with a time of 2:04.5, while Obi won the national championship in 2014 and is coming back from a hamstring injury.
"We've got almost as many shots to score as we did last year on the women's side," Harbour said of last year's seventh-place showing. "The men are just limited to Wil, the 4x4 and Felix. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do better than our projected rankings right now on both sides."
