For the second time in three indoor meets, Baylor's track and field teams will compete in College Station, Texas, as part of the Charlie Thomas Invitational Friday and Saturday at Gilliam Indoor Track & Field Stadium.
Along with Baylor and host Texas A&M, Cincinnati, Clemson, Houston, Rice, South Plains, TCU and UCLA will participate in the meet.
In total, Baylor has 54 athletes scheduled to travel to the meet with 30 women and 24 men in action. Baylor’s participation in the meet will begin at 2:30 p.m. Friday as Luke Littlefield and Hunter Powell take part in the heptathlon competition. Followed by Jenna Pfeiffer competing in the pentathlon at 3:30 p.m.
The heptathlon competition will resume at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The rest of Saturday’s action is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. with field and running events. Running event finals begin at 2 p.m. Baylor had its first off-weekend of the 2017 season last weekend, after competing at the Rod McCravy Memorial on Jan. 20-21.
In the season opening trip to College Station, Baylor's women's team placed second at the Texas A&M Team Invitational, while the men were third. Baylor got a combined six event wins at the two-day meet.
In the latest USTFCCCA coaches rankings, the Baylor women are 10th, while the men’s squad checks in at No. 33.
Following the first two meets of the season, the BU women have eight marks in the top-20 of the nation. Three of those national marks are in field events, including Annie Rhodes, who owns the nation’s fourth-best pole vault mark by clearing 14-5.25 [4.40m] in Kentucky. Besides Rhodes, Cion Hicks had a shot put throw of 54-2.75 [16.53m] that ranks 12th-best nationally, while Brianna Richardson has the 15th-best triple jump of 42-8 [13.00m]. On the track, freshman Aaliyah Miller is third in the 800 meters with a time of 2:03.43 and junior Leticia De Souza ranks ninth with a mark of 53.10.
BU has both of its relays inside the top 10 nationally with the 4x400-meter crew of Taylor Bennett, Kiana Hawn, Kiana Horton and De Souza using a school-record time of 3:32.09 to be third. Meanwhile, the distance medley relay squad of Alison Andrews-Paul, Hawn, Miller and Bradley are sixth in 11:12.39.
In the multi-events, Jenna Pfeiffer’s pentathlon point total at the Rod McCravy Memorial of 3,932 is 12th-best in the country.
The BU men have three marks in the top-20 nationally, including freshman Max Willis, who is 11th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.65 and senior George Caddick, who ranks 19th in the 400 meters in 47.10. BU’s 4x400-meter relay of Wil London, Caleb Dickson, Zac Curran and Caddick ranks 10th-best in the land with a time of 3:07.71.
Live results from the Charlie Thomas Invitational can be accessed on BaylorBears.com with a full recap to follow each day of competition. The meet will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.
Following the trip to College Station, the Bears will head north to Fayetteville, Ark., to take part in the Tyson Invitational, Feb. 10-11.
