ORLANDO, Fla. – Baylor track & field had success in the final day of competition of the Knights Invite at the UCF Soccer and Track Complex. The Bears were well represented on the track, winning four out of five running events entered in all an hour span.
Nathaniel Ezekiel continued his legacy at BU, becoming the first Bear to enter the program's top-10 best times since 2017 in the 400-meter.
THE RUNDOWN
Beginning in the preliminary rounds,
Demario Prince opened the gate early with a 13.89 (-0.9 m/s) mark to advance to the finals in first in the 110-meter hurdles. Prince improved his time in the final at 13.69 and earned gold in back-to-back weekends. Prince currently ranks at No. 8 in the NCAA.
In the 100m,
Ricquan Graham and
Alexis Brown both advanced in the preliminary rounds. In the finals, Brown posted a season-best time of 11.20 (+1.1 m/s) to win gold on the graduate's birthday. Brown now ranks in the top-20 in the NCAA this season. Graham finished sixth in the final with a 10.64 (+1.0 m/s) mark.
Nathaniel Ezekiel took first with the No. 2 time in the NCAA at 44.75 in his outdoor season debut in the 400m. The senior now enters Baylor's historic Quarter-Mile U top-10 program marks, tied for ninth. Ezekiel is the first Baylor Bear to crack in the top-10 marks since Wil London in 2017.
On the women's side, the Bears took over the 400m event with five Bears finishing in the top-10 and seven finishing in the top-20.
Calisha Taylor led the pack with a personal best mark of 52.91 in her season-opener in the event.
Tiriah Kelley made a career debut in the 400m and earned third place at 54.02.
In the women's high jump,
Sydney Smith continued her streak of finishing in the top-five with a fifth place finish at 5-6.
MIKE ON THE MIC
"Day Two of the Knights Invite. We had a great hour span," said head coach
Michael Ford. "Starting out with
Calisha Taylor winning the women's quarter. That's a PR for Calisha. Then, five minutes later, Nate comes and runs a season and personal best in the quarter. One of the top marks in the country. Then,
Demario Prince wins the hurdles with his second-best time of the year.
Alexis Brown and comes back, again, and wins the 100 with a season-best mark. In the span of an hour, we got four wins.
"Overall, I thought the group ran really well today. UCF did a great job hosting this meet. Now we have one more meet before conference championship. We've still got some work to do but overall had some season and personal bests today and we're ready to get back to Texas to get some work done."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will wrap up the regular outdoor season in College Station at the Alumni Muster from May 2-3.
