LINCOLN, Neb. – Baylor track and field wrapped up the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Saturday evening at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Indoor Track.
The Bear sprints excelled, as
De'montray Callis won the collegiate title in both the 60 and 200 meters, and
Tiriah Kelley won the women's 200 meters.
Alexis Brown and
Michaela Francois also took second and third, respectively, in the women's 60-meter dash. The women's 4x400-meter relay put up the best time for BU thus far this season, en route to another event win for Baylor in the final day of competition.
THE RUNDOWN
Callis won the men's collegiate 60-meter title behind a 6.68-second race, finishing second overall to Coby Hilton, a two-time USATF Indoor Championship finalist in the same event.
Laurenz Colbert took fourth in the collegiate race, at 6.84. Returning to the track, Callis also took the top spot in the men's 200 meters in 21.28 seconds, just before
Kamden Jackson in silver-medal position after 21.42 seconds.
Kelley took the top time and gold medal in the women's 200 meters with a season-best 23.80 to complete the event sweep for the Bears on Saturday. Right behind,
Mariah Ayers clocked a 23.85 to finish with the silver medal before
Michaela Francois and
Kayla Hunt finished back-to-back in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Kavia Francis took 12
th in the event with
Bria Bullard in 13
th and
Summer Sergeant in 17
th.
With the four Bears running in the women's 60-meter dash, Brown was the highest finisher, just one day off of her long jump win, taking the silver medal in 7.37 seconds. Francois rounded out the podium with bronze at 7.46 seconds.
Bria Bullard took sixth in the race and was followed by Kelley in eighth.
The women's 4x400-meter relay took the Husker Invitational title, as the A team of Francis,
Imaobong Uko, Ayers and
Gontse Morake improved the Baylor-best time this season to 3:38.73. The B team of Sergeant,
Jasmine Gryne, Kelley and Bullard crossed seventh.
The men's 4x400-meter relay finished in bronze with a 3:11.30 behind
Demar Francis,
Nathaniel Ezekiel, Colbert and
Nicholi Brown.
Makayla Long qualified through to the final three attempts in the women's shot put competition, ending her event in eighth place with a season-best mark of 51-9 ¾. Later in the men's contest,
Gary Moore Jr. finished fifth with a throw of 58-8 ¾.
Jackie Addy, a second-year transfer from Florida, improved her season-best 800-meter time to 2:14.83 to round out the top-10 finishers. Brown took 23
rd in the men's race.
The stellar freshman pole vault duo of
Alencia Lentz and
Molly Haywood took sixth and eighth, respectively, in the invitational competition on Saturday afternoon. Haywood finished off at 13-6 ¼, while Lentz cleared an additional bar at 14-0.
In distance,
Hayden Gold took 25
th in the three-section women's mile, while the Bears in the men's race finished in a pack together.
Devin Duran led in 23
rd, followed by
Aiden Ramshaw in 24
th,
Straton Miller in 26
th and
Ben Archer in 27
th.
In the men's high jump,
Ukurugenzi Kojo crossed three bars on three attempts to max out at 6-6. The senior second-year transfer took 12
th in the event. Moments later in the women's competition,
Aïcha Moumin improved her best mark of the season to 5-5 and finished 10
th ahead of
Sydney Smith in 12
th.
In the women's triple jump freshman
Bella Copeland went 37-7 ¾ to finish 11
th, missing the finals cutoff by two spots.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Michael Ford
On today's meet…
I am very happy with the group this weekend. I thought we finally got people healthy and were able to get good things accomplished, especially on the sprints side of things.
Makayla Long had a great meet in the weight throw and shot put, she did really well. And then you have the winners, with
Alexis Brown who competed for first in the long jump and ran well in the 60 with [Michaela] Francois. Then there's Tiriah [Kelley] and
Mariah Ayers who took the 1-2 finish in the 200, and then we did it again with De'montray [Callis] and Kam [Jackson] on the men's side. Just really impressed with that group. Our quarter milers with Demar [Francis] finished up really well with a personal best and as did Ima [Uko] first race of the year. Our 4x400 is coming along and building. We just need to continue to execute, and we will keep getting better each week. Clemson will be another big challenge for us. Thankful for Nebraska and the invitation to come and compete, it's been something like 15 years, and the crowd was amazing. It's good to see the team performing well in front of a nice crowd. Now we have to prep for Clemson and start eyeing the Big 12 Championship.
UP NEXT
Baylor is back on the road next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9-10, at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, S.C.
- BaylorBears.com –