TOUGH ONE TO SWALLOW

TOUGH ONE TO SWALLOW

5/28/2020 10:11:00 AM | Track & Field

After Frustrating End to Season, Track Reloaded With One of Top Recruiting

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

While most of the spring sports were just getting going when the NCAA shut things down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were already in Albuquerque, N.M., and just hours away from competing.

"It's hard on everybody," said Baylor coach Todd Harbour, who had three individuals and a relay team make it to the big stage. "But, I think for our guys, especially, because of the timing of it, you're just moments away from being able to compete for a national championship. And we had a couple that thought they could win one. All of a sudden, that's taken away from you. That's a pretty tough one to swallow."

Indoor Team

Because of a ruling by the NCAA Division I Track & Field Executive Committee earlier this week, pole vaulters KC Lightfoot and Tuesdi Tidwell, triple jumper Alex Madlock and the men's 4x400 relay team of Ryan Croson, Howard Fields III, Matthew Moorer and Maxwell Willis will be officially recognized as 2020 indoor All-Americans.
Nonetheless, it was still an opportunity missed.

"It was tough, I'm not going to lie to you, just the emotion of knowing that you're that close to competing for what you've worked for the whole indoor season," Harbour said.

For others, like 400-meter hurdlers Jayson Baldridge and Elijah Gifford, they were looking forward to the start of the outdoor season and the opening meet at San Antonio that was just a week away when the NCAA canceled the remainder of the spring sports' seasons.

"Personally, it was very frustrating," said Gifford, a junior from Austin who had a medical redshirt during the 2018 outdoor season before transitioning from the 300 hurdles to the longer distance last year, when he had a season-best time of 52.62. "I had those growing pains, and then I was feeling super-confident coming off a great indoor season for me personally. Going into the outdoor season, I was looking pretty fit over the hurdles. And then, literally right before our first outdoor meet, we got the call that they canceled the season. It was a huge bummer. I'm just trying to find the good in everything."

Elijah Gifford

Adding half-miler Aaliyah Miller on the women's side, plus the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, Harbour thought the men and women had the potential to be top-10 teams outdoors. Until the shutdown because of COVID-19, the West Preliminary Outdoor Championships would have been held this weekend in Lawrence, Kan., with the NCAA Outdoor Championships taking place two weeks later in Austin.

"When you add Aaliyah Miller back in the mix, that's a big piece," Harbour said of Miller, a two-time conference champion in the 800 meters who redshirted during the indoor season. "She was in phenomenal shape. She only ran the 800 one time indoors and had the No. 2 time in the nation (2:02). She would have definitely made a big difference."

Harbour said the Bears "didn't become the team we needed to be" during the indoor season, with the men finishing seventh and the women eighth at the Big 12 Indoor Championships that were held Feb. 28-29 in Ames, Iowa. Highlights included Lightfoot claiming his third Big 12 title, Tidwell finishing second in the women's pole vault and the men's 4x400 relay earning a silver medal as well.

"Our men did just about all they could do. We thought we would be a little stronger outdoor team with a 4x100 and 4x400," Harbour said. "But, on the ladies' side, that was a big dropoff. That was something we were hoping to rectify is becoming a better team outdoors."

KC Lightfoot

Like Gifford, Harbour is trying to "find the good in everything." At the top of that list is bringing back the bulk of the senior class that includes Willis, Croson and sprinter Ian Braxton on the men's side and jumper Jacinta Fisher for the women's team.

"We didn't have a big senior class on the ladies' side, so we feel like indoor next year we ought to be pretty solid with the crew coming in and everybody else losing their senior classes," Harbour said.

Where Harbour's excitement level jumps up a few notches is talking about a women's recruiting class that could be No. 1 in the country. "I would be surprised if it's not at least top three," he said.

That includes a fall signing group that featured sprinters Cierra Wash from DeSoto, Bria Bullard from Melissa and Lily Williams from Centennial, Colo., a two-time Colorado state champion in the 400 meters and runner-up in the 800 at the 2019 meet. She was ranked sixth in the nation in the 400 meters with a personal-best time of 53.63.

At the state meet two years ago, Williams beat the nation's top-ranked quarter-miler in the 400-meter finals, outdueling Arria Minor, who had run a time of 51.92 prelims time that was ranked fourth in the world. Those two will be reunited at Baylor with Minor transferring from Georgia after a shortened indoor season with the Bulldogs.

"That was a big shock when Lily came back and beat her in the finals," Harbour said. "Lily Williams is tough. She's a 600 meters girl indoors, will probably run the 800 in time. But, she's just a tough kid. Arria Minor was the top sprinter in the country last year and turned down USC, South Carolina, LSU . . . she turned down everybody to come to Baylor."

Also added in the spring was a pair of Jamaicans in sprinters Kavia Francis and hurdler Ackera Nugent, who set the U18 world record in the 100-meter hurdles last year with a blazing time of 12.89 at the Youngster Goldsmith Classic. Francis is ranked seventh in the world in the U20 400 meters with a time of 53.38 and holds a personal best of 23.58 in the 200.

Nugent's 12.89 time in the 100 hurdles "puts her in the mix" for a top-three finish at the NCAA Championships, Harbour said, while Francis' coach expected her to break 53 seconds this season in the 400.

Another key newcomer is Gontse Morake, the South African national U18 record-holder in both the triple jump and 400-meter hurdle. A transfer from the University of Johannesburg, Morake has run 57.81 in the 400-meter hurdles, has a personal best of 42-11 ¾ in the triple jump and could also be a contributor on the 4x400 relay.

"On paper, just that freshman group alone should be a sub-3:30 team (in the 4x400), could be a school record-setting team," Harbour said. "That's pretty amazing."

Between Minor, Morake and Nugent, based on their previous marks, "those are potential national points," Harbour said.

An All-American and collegiate mile record-holder at Baylor, Harbour said he can't remember having a stretch of down time like this "once I started coaching in 1985."

"I've never had anything like this, not even close to it," he said.

Based on the phase-in plan approved by the Big 12 Conference last week, Baylor's cross country runners could return to campus as early as July 1 to start voluntary sport-related activity, with the other track and field athletes able to come back on July 15.