Baylor Track & Field Set For Big 12 Indoor Championship - KXXV Central Texas News Now

Baylor returns 22 All-Big 12 performers to the 2017 Big 12 Indoor Championship hosted by Iowa State at the Lied Recreation Center in Ames, Iowa, including 8 who have won Big 12 Indoor titles.

STORY LINES
• Heading into the Big 12 Indoor Championship meet, the Bears have 40 event marks (18 men & 22 women) among the top 10 in the conference.

• The Bears have five league-leading marks, including Taylor Bennett (200m), Aaliyah Miller (800m), Maggie Montoya (3,000m), women’s 4x400-meter relay and Max Willis (60m).

• Baylor’s women also own 5 second-best conference marks from Leticia De Souza (400m), Lindsey Bradley (5,000m), Annie Rhodes (pole vault), Cion Hicks (shot put) and the distance medley relay.

• On the men’s side, the Bears have a pair of runner-up league times from Zak Curran (800m) & Rhys Phillips (60H).

• The BU women enter the meet ranked No. 7 in the latest USTFCCCA rankings, which is the best of any Big 12 team and ties a program high. Baylor currently would have 7 entries into the NCAA Indoor Championships (Bennett, De Souza, Miller, Rhodes, Hicks and both relays).

• Nationally as a team, the men are ranked No. 73. The Bears would currently have just one entry to the NCAA?Championships field (Willis). 

• At last year’s Big 12 Indoor meet in Ames, Baylor’s women collected two event titles and tallied 69.28 points, while finishing 6th. The men produced one Big 12 crown, placing 8th with 44.5 points.

• The Baylor women have now finished in the top four of the team standings in four of the last five years, while the men will look to finish above seventh for the first time since 2013.

• Each squad has four athletes that have previously stood on top of the podium at an indoor conference meet, including returning 4x400-meter relay champions George Caddick, Caleb Dickson, Wil London and Brandon Moore for the men and Bennett, Kiana Hawn and Kiana Horton for the women, while Brianna Richardson captured the 2015 triple jump crown, before missing all of last season with injury.

TOP QUOTE #1
“The thing that makes me think we have a realistic shot to win a Big 12 title on the women’s side is that we have nine seniors. Some of the teams that we are competing against are not even close to that, so we have a very old mature group and we have some young ones that are providing strong firepower. We have a shot at it now we just have to go up there and perform well.” - head coach Todd Harbour on the women's team

TOP QUOTE #2
“On the men’s side, the guys are working to get a few more qualified for the NCAA meet. Our 4x4 relay got bumped out last week, but we expect them to run well at conference. The men have to take care of their business to get to nationals. They may not have the firepower to challenge for the team title, but we can have a good meet by getting some more bodies to nationals.” - Harbour on the men's squad

RESULTS/COVERAGE
Live results of the 2017 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championship can be found at Big12Sports.com. FloTrack will live stream the action.