SportsBaylor Bears

Actions

Baylor Track & Field: Lightfoot, Seals Advance to Austin

Posted at 10:35 PM, May 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-24 23:35:11-04

SACRAMENTO, CA — KC Lightfoot and Jalen Seals punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships in Austin, while seven Bears qualified for the quarterfinals Thursday on day one of the NCAA West Preliminary Championships.

“Overall, it was a good day,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “I was proud of the field event athletes. It was a great day for those guys, all of them across the board. On the track, we were solid as well.”

Lightfoot cleared the highest bar of 17-7 to make the top 12 of the men’s pole vault and advance to the NCAA Championships June 5-8 in Austin.

“KC couldn’t have had worse conditions in the vault,” Harbour said. “There was a crosswind, headwind, rain. It was about as bad as it gets, and for him to have the mental fortitude to persevere through that said a lot for a freshman. He could have wilted and he didn’t, so I’m really proud of him.”

Seals, who was ranked 42nd in the west region coming into the meet, recorded a season-best long jump of 24-7.75 (7.51m) to make the top 12 and move on to Austin.

“Jalen went up in the rankings a lot,” Harbour said. “Any time you come out of the second, third, and fourth flights, that’s amazing. I’m really proud for him.”

The men’s 400 meters group of Wil London (45.66), Matthew Moorer (46.50), and Howard Fields III (46.89) all qualified for Friday’s quarterfinals looking to earn a trip to the NCAA Championships.

In the women’s 400 meters, Kiana Horton moved on to the quarterfinals as well with a run of 53.10.

“The quartermilers, we got four of them through,” Harbour said. “I thought Wil and Kiana looked great. Matthew, Trey - all of those guys did a good job getting through.”

Both Leticia De Souza and Aaliyah Miller earned spots in the quarterfinals of the 800 meters, running times of 2:06.40 and 2:07.52, respectively.

“Both Aaliyah and Leti looked really good,” Harbour said.

Sydney Washington made it to the quarterfinals of the women’s 100 meters, posting a time of 11.62.

Megan SaxvanderWeyden closed her Baylor career with a throw of 145-10 (44.45m) to finish 28th.

“Megan battled hard,” Harbour said. “Her elbow hasn’t been good for a while. I’m proud of her. She’s had a great year. I’m so proud of who she is and how she’s represented us this year.”

In the women’s high jump, Alyssa Miller was ranked 30th coming in and just missed out on a trip to Austin with a 13th-place finish.

“Alyssa just missed it,” Harbour said. Thirteenth is as close as you can get. I thought she competed really hard. She went up big time in the rankings.”

Baylor will continue action at the NCAA West Regional Championships Friday and Saturday. Live results can be found at https://dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net/West/index.htm [dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net].

For continued updates on the Baylor Track & Field team, follow the team's social media accounts all season long: @BaylorTrack.