Baylor’s track and field team closed out the Rod McCravy Memorial with three more event titles, a world-leading time and a school record Saturday at Nutter Field House.
Freshman Aaliyah Miller blazed to a world-leading 800-meter time of 2:03.43 to win the event by .61 seconds. Miller’s mark, which is second-fastest in school history behind Olicia Williams’ 2015 time of 2:03.21, reached far beyond the BU record book. According to research by Erik Boal of DyeStat, Miller’s time is believed to be a college freshman indoor record and top 30 all-time among NCAA Division I performers. The last freshman to break 2:04.0 in the indoor 800 was BYU’s Lacey Bleazard, who ran 2:03.91 in the 2009 NCAA prelims on her way to winning the title.
Miller’s time is also No. 4 all-time on the American Junior indoor performer list behind only Mary Decker (2:01.8), Ajee’ Wilson (2:02.64) and Mary Cain (2:02.75).
To close out the meet, the women’s 4x400-meter relay of Taylor Bennett, Kiana Hawn, Kiana Horton and Leticia De Souza produced a school-record time of 3:32.09 to place second in the event. That time bettered the previous school record of 3:32.26 run by Carla Grace, LaKadron Ivery, Danielle Myricks and Angel Perkins at the NCAA meet in 2005. The quartet’s time is also second-best in the country for the current season and BU’s season-best after a time of 3:34.00 last week.
Freshman Max Willis picked up another event victory in the 60 meters. A week after winning the Texas A&M Team Invitational, the first-year Bear sprinted to a win in 6.65, which is the sixth-fastest time in the NCAA currently. Willis placed fourth in the prelims with a mark of 6.79 and improved on that time by .14 seconds in the final.
In her second meet back from injury, Brianna Richardson picked up another victory. She won the triple jump competition on her final attempt with a leap of 42-8 [13.00m], which is ninth-best in the NCAA. Meanwhile, Rachel Toliver was fifth with a top jump of 40-11.5 [12.48m].
