MANHATTAN, Kansas – Alexis Brown continues to shine in her senior season as she leads Baylor track & field to soaring heights on Day One at the DeLoss Dodds Invite in the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track. The Kennedale, Texas native recorded a 22-3 mark in the women's long jump, breaking the meet, facility and program record – the program record that she had already broken just three weeks ago.
Brown now reigns as No. 1 in the Big 12, tied at No. 2 in the nation and tied at No. 3 in the world for the 2025 season in the women's long jump. Brown is just one of four women in the NCAA this year that has jumped to the 22-feet mark. Brown has her name etched into Baylor's top six best long jump marks in program history.
Overall, Baylor recorded 15 personal best marks across the board in its first day in the Little Apple.
THE RUNDOWN
Brown was not the only Bear found success on the day.
Tiriah Kelley, coming off a Big 12 Athlete of the Week performance, ran for a facility record of 23.07 in the women's 200m to win first place for the third straight meet in a row.
In the men's 200m, the Bears tookover the leaderboard with seven Bears finishing in the top-11.
Demar Francis continued his success, finishing first at 21.05 with
Ricquan Graham,
Laurenz Colbert and
Abbas Ali right behind him to all finish in the top-four.
The distance crew showed out with senior
Jackie Addy earning a PB time of 2:52.98 and a second place finish, just 0.32 seconds behind first, in the women's 1000m. Freshman
Lucy Benton also gained a personal best at 2:55.60. In the men's 1000m,
Ethan Wrase clocked a PB time of 2:30.46 to finish in eighth.
In the field events,
Igor Olaru made his collegiate debut in the men's weight throw with a 60-1.75 mark, putting him in third in Baylor program history of weight throw performers.
Alongside Brown in the women's long jump,
Janae De Gannes earned a top-five finish in fourth place at 20-7. Additionally,
Bella Copeland produced a personal best mark of 17-11.75.
In the women's pole vault,
Molly Haywood finished tied for third, her third meet in a row finishing in medaling position.
Tenly Kuhn jumped to a new personal best after breaking her former record two meets ago in College Station with a 14-0 mark.
In the first meet of the season with pentathlon competitions taking place, three freshmen of
Shaye Feely,
Logan Todorovich and
Kiara Wesseh took on the five-event challenge. Todorivich grabbed herself an 11
th place finish with 3,864 points which ranks her in fourth in program history performers.
MIKE ON THE MIC
"Good first day today," head coach
Michael Ford said. "We had two facility records with Alexis going over the 22-barrier and
Tiriah Kelley [in the women's 200m]. Both huge jumps for Alexis. She had two really big jumps, and then Tiriah with another third win in a row and a really solid job. I thought the 1000m ladies did really well. They had two PRs for both ladies. I was really proud of all of our multis. Logan is now in No. 4 in Baylor all-time history, so she had a good meet. Coach
Chase Hood did a great job with them. Coach
Stacey Smith had three in the finals in the long jump. I was also really proud of the men's 200m to go one-two-three-four and have six in the top-eight. So overall, I thought we had a good first day and am ready for tomorrow."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor continues competition on Saturday in the final day of the DeLoss Dodds Invite, beginning at 2 p.m. CT.
