T&F Gets Seven Into NCAA West Quarterfinal Round

T&F Gets Seven Into NCAA West Quarterfinal Round
Bears open up regional meet in Austin with eight athletes in action.

THE RUNDOWN
AUSTIN, Texas - On the first day of the NCAA West Preliminary Championships, Baylor had seven student-athletes qualify for the quarterfinal round in six events Thursday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

Athletes in all of the day's running events needed to finish in the top three of their heat or among the next six-best times overall to be among 24 qualifiers to advance to the quarterfinal round of competition.

In the 100-meter dash, sophomore Trayvon Bromell had the fastest qualifying time overall with a 9.94 (2.1 m/s) to automatically advance to Friday's quarterfinal round at 6:45 p.m. Meanwhile on the women's side, senior Tiffani McReynolds produced a time of 11.41 to be third in her heat and 16th overall to be an auto-qualifier for Friday's quarterfinals at 6:30 p.m. Fellow senior Kehri Jones posted a personal-best time of 11.48 to be 22^nd overall to earn a spot in the next round on time.

Junior Raena Rhone took second in her heat of the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.74 to automatically qualify and be the eighth-fastest qualifier overall. She will be trying to advance to NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Friday at 6 p.m.

On the men's side in the quarter mile, George Caddick used a strong finish to win his heat in 46.35, which was the second-fastest qualifying time overall. The heat victory automatically advanced the BU sophomore in to quarterfinals of the event at 6:15 p.m. Friday.

To close the night, Olicia Williams ran a patient 800-meter race as she was at the back of her heat for the first 500 meters. The junior moved up from eighth to second over the next 175 meters, before taking the lead coming out of the final curve to win the heat in 2:08.33. The victory moves Williams on to the next round on Friday at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, Brandon Moore took an early lead in the men's 800-meter run, before dropping back to fourth with 300 meters to go. From that point, the BU sophomore regained his momentum to place third in his heat with a time of 1:49.95, which was the 15^th-best qualifying time. He will now run in the Friday's quarterfinals at 7:15 p.m.

Just slipping in to the quarterfinal round, freshman Kiana Hawn led off the meet for Baylor by running a 1:00.30 in the 400-meter hurdles. Her time was fifth-best in her heat and 23^rd-best overall.

OTHER NOTABLES

·         Richard Gary placed 35^th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.49.

TOP QUOTE #1            
"It was a very solid first day of competition for us. It was great to get seven of eight through to the next round." - head coach Todd Harbour on the first day of the NCAA West Preliminary Championships

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor athletes will be back on Friday at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships at 12 p.m. as Cion Hicks will compete in the discus. Running events get started for the Bears at 5 p.m. with the running of the 100-meter hurdles.

To stay current on all things Baylor Track, follow the team on Twitter: @BaylorTrack.