THE FUTURE IS NOW
6/8/2021 9:59:00 PM | Track & Field
Baylor Freshmen Hoping to Make Some Noise at NCAA Championships
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           For Baylor track & field, the future isn't just bright, the future is now.
           Indoor national champion hurdler Ackera Nugent heads a talented group of first- and second-year freshmen that includes relay runners Kavia Francis, Arria Minor and Mariah Ayers on the women's side and sprinter Kamden Jackson and quarter-milers Dillon Bedell and Hasani Barr for the men's team.
           With Nugent making it to the semifinals in both the 100-meter hurdles and open 100, and Minor and Ayers running on the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, that group of freshmen fills roughly half of Baylor's 20 spots for the NCAA Outdoor Championships that begin Wednesday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
           "Obviously, Ackera, you win a national championship as a freshman, that's pretty special," Baylor head coach Todd Harbour said. "But, it's a great, young group, they're battle-tested. Coach (Michael) Ford and Coach (Benjamin) Dalton have done an outstanding job with that group. . . . I'm just excited for the future of the program as to where it's going to be in the next couple of years."
           Coming off the national championship in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, Nugent led off an impressive performance at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds two weeks ago with a head-shaking time of 12.63 in the 100 hurdles that ranks as the fastest all-conditions U20 time in the world.
           She also tied Tiffany Townsend's school record with an 11.09 clocking in the 100 and ran the second leg on the 4x100 relay that advanced with a 44.29 time. What makes it even more difficult at the NCAA Championships is Nugent's individual events are back-to-back, with no more than a 10-minute break between.
           "Never in history has a hurdler done the hurdles and the 100," Nugent said. "It's either just the hurdles, or the hurdles and the 200. For me doing the hurdles and 100, it actually takes a strong mindset and determination to accomplish great things in both. And if I do make the finals, basically after the hurdles I've got like two minutes and I'm back at the 100-meter line. But, I'm prepared to go out there and do my absolute best and see what I have in the tank."
           Even though she had the No. 2-ranked time going in, the freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, certainly didn't expect to win the national championship in her first big NCAA meet.
           "I did expect to make it to the finals, but I did not expect to medal. And I did," said Nugent, who won the 60-meter hurdles in an U20 world-record time of 7.92 seconds. "It showed me that it doesn't matter my age, or if I'm just a freshman. You can get anything you want as long as you put your mind to it and you're willing to fight for it."
           Nugent said she doesn't worry about anyone else's expectations, because "you're not in my shoes to be able to say, 'She needs to do this, she needs to do that.'''
           "If you try to live up to other people's expectations, you're going to fall faster than you got up there," she said. "It's best for me, at this age, to stay humble, be grateful for what I've accomplished and remember that what is given to me can be taken from me."
           While Nugent could also run in the 4x100 finals, depending on the rest of her schedule, either Demitra Carter or Caira Pettway will likely join Minor, Ayers and senior Sydney Washington in the semifinal round.
           "I feel like if we have a perfect race, we should be able to make (the finals) in both relays," said Ayers, scheduled to run the anchor leg in both. "(In the 4x100 relay), the handoffs have to be perfect."
           Ayers said there's more pressure as the anchor on the 4x400-meter relay, "because I feel like they do all the work, so I can't mess it up." Joining Ayers on the 4x400 relay are Minor, Francis and indoor 800-meter national champion Aaliyah Miller.
           "They get really nervous, their eyes get all big," Miller said of her freshman teammates. "But like I tell them all the time, they're producing times of veterans. I just try to remind them not to shy away from the challenge and to really lock in. We belong racing with these girls."
           While Nugent's back-to-back races in the 100 hurdles and 100 make it close to impossible, one of the toughest doubles on the track is the 200-400. Of course, former Baylor All-American Michael Johnson made it look easy at the 1996 Olympics, winning the 400 with an Olympic-record time of 43.39 and shattering the world record in the 200 with a 19.32-second clocking.
           Francis, who made it through the first round in both events at the NCAA West meet, said she is "slowly learning how to tackle both events. All I need to do is just go back to the drawing board and come back stronger."
           "I usually do both events, but in college it seems so hard," said Francis, a first-year freshman from Clarendon, Jamaica. "At the Big 12 (meet), I did the double for the first time in one championship. And I cried, it was so hard."
           Doing the more traditional 100-200 double, Ayers joined Francis and Minor in the 200-meter quarterfinals at College Station, but failed to get out of the first round in the 100.
           Going through her first NCAA meet "should help a lot" going into next season, Ayers said, because "I know what I could do and what I didn't do that day. Next year, it should be easier to make it to the next round."
           On the men's side, Jackson was the only individual qualifier among the freshmen, nabbing the final spot in the 100 meters by placing third in his heat with a time of 10.30. Considered a longshot to make it to the finals in Eugene, a confident Jackson said his goal next year is "to really wake the world up."
           "My freshman year, I was new to this college track, so it was always about making a name for myself. And I did that," Jackson said of a COVID-shortened 2020 season. "This year, I feel like I was able to capitalize on that. I'm not a nobody anymore. People know my face, they know my name. Next year, I want to be the guy. I want to wake the world up. I want to be one of those big names like Grant Holloway or Trayvon Bromell."
           Bromell, a two-time NCAA champion at Baylor and an Olympic favorite in the 100 meters this year in Tokyo, has been a mentor or big brother for Jackson.
           "If I have a question about anything, I can shoot him a text, and he'll always give me advice," Jackson said. "And he always gives me the best advice, whether it's spiritual or about life or track, whatever it is."
           Barr and Bedell make up half of a men's 4x400 relay that includes fifth-year senior Ryan Croson and fourth-year junior All-American Howard Fields III, who's also running in the open 400.
           "Even when I first committed here, everybody was talking about Quarter-Miler U. and just the history and tradition of Baylor," said Bedell, a true freshman from Lancaster, Texas, who won the 5A state championship in the 400 as a junior in 2019. "I know in recent years, it's kind of fallen off a little, but we are going to get back to that prominent name that everybody just talks about Baylor, the 4x4, the 400, Quarter-Miler U. There won't be any debate."
           Coming into his first year at Baylor, Bedell was on the outside looking in at an impressive pool of relay candidates that included Fields, Croson and fellow All-Americans Matthew Moorer, Jayson Baldridge and Maxwell Willis. Add in Barr, Bedell, 400-meter hurdler Elijah Gifford and quarter-miler Chris DuPree, and the Bears were "just extremely stacked," he said.
           "It truly is an honor having to work my way on the relay and actually being on the relay," Bedell said, "because, honestly, if the whole team was healthy and in top shape, no other school would be able to compete with us. Just being on the relay, just building the bonds, is an awesome thing."
           Running in the open 400 at the NCAA West meet, Bedell finished last in his heat with a disappointing time of 47.89.
           "I let the moment get to me and ran like a freshman," said Bedell, who ran a season-best time of 46.64 at Texas Relays. "I tried switching things up during the race instead of sticking to the game plan, because the coaches know what I can do, I know what I can do, everybody knows what I can do. I've split 44 and low 45 (on the relay). If I can do that, I can run 45. That's also a good learning experience. I'm going to use that as motivation for next year."
           Wednesday's schedule has Jackson running in the 100-meter semifinals at 8:16 p.m. CDT, followed by Fields in the 400 at 8:30 and the 4x400 relay in the final event of the night at 10:18.
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Baylor Bear Insider
           For Baylor track & field, the future isn't just bright, the future is now.
           Indoor national champion hurdler Ackera Nugent heads a talented group of first- and second-year freshmen that includes relay runners Kavia Francis, Arria Minor and Mariah Ayers on the women's side and sprinter Kamden Jackson and quarter-milers Dillon Bedell and Hasani Barr for the men's team.
           With Nugent making it to the semifinals in both the 100-meter hurdles and open 100, and Minor and Ayers running on the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, that group of freshmen fills roughly half of Baylor's 20 spots for the NCAA Outdoor Championships that begin Wednesday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
           "Obviously, Ackera, you win a national championship as a freshman, that's pretty special," Baylor head coach Todd Harbour said. "But, it's a great, young group, they're battle-tested. Coach (Michael) Ford and Coach (Benjamin) Dalton have done an outstanding job with that group. . . . I'm just excited for the future of the program as to where it's going to be in the next couple of years."
           Coming off the national championship in the indoor 60-meter hurdles, Nugent led off an impressive performance at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds two weeks ago with a head-shaking time of 12.63 in the 100 hurdles that ranks as the fastest all-conditions U20 time in the world.
           She also tied Tiffany Townsend's school record with an 11.09 clocking in the 100 and ran the second leg on the 4x100 relay that advanced with a 44.29 time. What makes it even more difficult at the NCAA Championships is Nugent's individual events are back-to-back, with no more than a 10-minute break between.
           "Never in history has a hurdler done the hurdles and the 100," Nugent said. "It's either just the hurdles, or the hurdles and the 200. For me doing the hurdles and 100, it actually takes a strong mindset and determination to accomplish great things in both. And if I do make the finals, basically after the hurdles I've got like two minutes and I'm back at the 100-meter line. But, I'm prepared to go out there and do my absolute best and see what I have in the tank."
           Even though she had the No. 2-ranked time going in, the freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, certainly didn't expect to win the national championship in her first big NCAA meet.
           "I did expect to make it to the finals, but I did not expect to medal. And I did," said Nugent, who won the 60-meter hurdles in an U20 world-record time of 7.92 seconds. "It showed me that it doesn't matter my age, or if I'm just a freshman. You can get anything you want as long as you put your mind to it and you're willing to fight for it."
           Nugent said she doesn't worry about anyone else's expectations, because "you're not in my shoes to be able to say, 'She needs to do this, she needs to do that.'''
           "If you try to live up to other people's expectations, you're going to fall faster than you got up there," she said. "It's best for me, at this age, to stay humble, be grateful for what I've accomplished and remember that what is given to me can be taken from me."
           While Nugent could also run in the 4x100 finals, depending on the rest of her schedule, either Demitra Carter or Caira Pettway will likely join Minor, Ayers and senior Sydney Washington in the semifinal round.
           "I feel like if we have a perfect race, we should be able to make (the finals) in both relays," said Ayers, scheduled to run the anchor leg in both. "(In the 4x100 relay), the handoffs have to be perfect."
           Ayers said there's more pressure as the anchor on the 4x400-meter relay, "because I feel like they do all the work, so I can't mess it up." Joining Ayers on the 4x400 relay are Minor, Francis and indoor 800-meter national champion Aaliyah Miller.
           "They get really nervous, their eyes get all big," Miller said of her freshman teammates. "But like I tell them all the time, they're producing times of veterans. I just try to remind them not to shy away from the challenge and to really lock in. We belong racing with these girls."
           While Nugent's back-to-back races in the 100 hurdles and 100 make it close to impossible, one of the toughest doubles on the track is the 200-400. Of course, former Baylor All-American Michael Johnson made it look easy at the 1996 Olympics, winning the 400 with an Olympic-record time of 43.39 and shattering the world record in the 200 with a 19.32-second clocking.
           Francis, who made it through the first round in both events at the NCAA West meet, said she is "slowly learning how to tackle both events. All I need to do is just go back to the drawing board and come back stronger."
           "I usually do both events, but in college it seems so hard," said Francis, a first-year freshman from Clarendon, Jamaica. "At the Big 12 (meet), I did the double for the first time in one championship. And I cried, it was so hard."
           Doing the more traditional 100-200 double, Ayers joined Francis and Minor in the 200-meter quarterfinals at College Station, but failed to get out of the first round in the 100.
           Going through her first NCAA meet "should help a lot" going into next season, Ayers said, because "I know what I could do and what I didn't do that day. Next year, it should be easier to make it to the next round."
           On the men's side, Jackson was the only individual qualifier among the freshmen, nabbing the final spot in the 100 meters by placing third in his heat with a time of 10.30. Considered a longshot to make it to the finals in Eugene, a confident Jackson said his goal next year is "to really wake the world up."
           "My freshman year, I was new to this college track, so it was always about making a name for myself. And I did that," Jackson said of a COVID-shortened 2020 season. "This year, I feel like I was able to capitalize on that. I'm not a nobody anymore. People know my face, they know my name. Next year, I want to be the guy. I want to wake the world up. I want to be one of those big names like Grant Holloway or Trayvon Bromell."
           Bromell, a two-time NCAA champion at Baylor and an Olympic favorite in the 100 meters this year in Tokyo, has been a mentor or big brother for Jackson.
           "If I have a question about anything, I can shoot him a text, and he'll always give me advice," Jackson said. "And he always gives me the best advice, whether it's spiritual or about life or track, whatever it is."
           Barr and Bedell make up half of a men's 4x400 relay that includes fifth-year senior Ryan Croson and fourth-year junior All-American Howard Fields III, who's also running in the open 400.
           "Even when I first committed here, everybody was talking about Quarter-Miler U. and just the history and tradition of Baylor," said Bedell, a true freshman from Lancaster, Texas, who won the 5A state championship in the 400 as a junior in 2019. "I know in recent years, it's kind of fallen off a little, but we are going to get back to that prominent name that everybody just talks about Baylor, the 4x4, the 400, Quarter-Miler U. There won't be any debate."
           Coming into his first year at Baylor, Bedell was on the outside looking in at an impressive pool of relay candidates that included Fields, Croson and fellow All-Americans Matthew Moorer, Jayson Baldridge and Maxwell Willis. Add in Barr, Bedell, 400-meter hurdler Elijah Gifford and quarter-miler Chris DuPree, and the Bears were "just extremely stacked," he said.
           "It truly is an honor having to work my way on the relay and actually being on the relay," Bedell said, "because, honestly, if the whole team was healthy and in top shape, no other school would be able to compete with us. Just being on the relay, just building the bonds, is an awesome thing."
           Running in the open 400 at the NCAA West meet, Bedell finished last in his heat with a disappointing time of 47.89.
           "I let the moment get to me and ran like a freshman," said Bedell, who ran a season-best time of 46.64 at Texas Relays. "I tried switching things up during the race instead of sticking to the game plan, because the coaches know what I can do, I know what I can do, everybody knows what I can do. I've split 44 and low 45 (on the relay). If I can do that, I can run 45. That's also a good learning experience. I'm going to use that as motivation for next year."
           Wednesday's schedule has Jackson running in the 100-meter semifinals at 8:16 p.m. CDT, followed by Fields in the 400 at 8:30 and the 4x400 relay in the final event of the night at 10:18.
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