Women won their heat with 3:31 to advance!

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T&F TOTALS NINE ENTRIES TO NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Baylor Sends 12 Runners To National Meet In Eugene
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May 27, 2018
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THE RUNDOWN
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Baylor track & field team added two runners and three relay teams for nine total entries for the NCAA Outdoor Championships on the final day of the NCAA West Preliminary Championships Saturday at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif.

In the running events, qualifiers gained automatic entry by finishing top three in a heat or in the next three fastest times.

BU WOMEN NOTABLES
Alex Madlock finished 24th overall in the triple jump as she went 41' 11.25" (12.78m) to conclude her freshman season.

On the track, the 4x100-meter relay tandem of Kiana Horton, Taylor Bennett, Juanita Mainoo and Raven Grant clinched an automatic spot in Eugene after running 44.44 to finish third in heat one and seventh overall.

After clinching a spot in Eugene in the relay, Bennett came back and ran 23.03 in the 200 meters to advance for the second consecutive season. She finished with the 11th-best time in the quarterfinals.

Closing out the meet, the 4x400-meter relay quartet of Victoria Powell, Taylor Bennett, Aaliyah Miller and Kiana Horton ran the 10th-fastest time in program history as they went 3:31.34 to win heat three and automatically qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

BU MEN NOTABLES
Running for the first time together this season, the 4x100-meter relay team of Ian Braxton, Maxwell Willis, Malik Wilson and Isaiah Cunningham ran 40.75 and finished 17th overall.

On his first mark, Jalen Seals went 49' 8.5" (15.15m) in the triple jump to finish 10th after the first two flights and ultimately 19th overall to conclude his freshman season.

In the 5,000 meters, Devin Meyrer clocked his second-best time of the season in 14:19.06 and finished 35th overall.

For the 39th-consecutive season, the men's 4x400-meter relay advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The tandem of Antwuan Musgrove, Howard Fields III, Caleb Dickson and Wil London clocked 3:04.56 to finish second in heat three and clinch an automatic spot.

HIGHLIGHTS
Twelve Bears advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in nine events: women's 800 meters, women's 4x100-meter relay, men's and women's 400 meters, men's and women's 200 meters, men's and women's 4x400-meter relay and women's 400-meter hurdles.
Taylor Bennett and Maxwell Willis advance in the 200 meters for the second-straight season.
Raven Grant, Juanita Mainoo, Taylor Bennett and Kiana Horton clinched an automatic spot in Eugene after running 44.44 in the 4x100-meter relay.
Kiana Horton and Taylor Bennett advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in three events each.
The men's 4x400-meter relay advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the 39th consecutive season.
The women's 4x400-meter relay crew of Victoria Powell, Taylor Bennett, Aaliyah Miller and Kiana Horton posted the 10th-fastest time in school history (3:31.34) to win heat three.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS (12 competitors, 9 events)
Taylor Bennett (200m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay), Caleb Dickson (4x400m relay), Howard Fields III (4x400m relay), Raven Grant (4x100m relay), Kiana Hawn (400m hurdles), Kiana Horton (400m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay), Wil London (400m, 4x400m relay), Juanita Mainoo (4x100m relay), Aaliyah Miller (800m, 4x400m relay), Antwuan Musgrove (4x400m relay), Victoria Powell (4x400m relay), Maxwell Willis (200m)

TOP QUOTE #1
"We were excited to get three of the four relays through to Eugene today. I'm proud of them. They competed really hard. We had 11 freshmen overall compete, and they're battle tested now. They got some good experience. Overall, we had a lot of good experiences this weekend." -head coach Todd Harbour on finishing out the meet

TOP QUOTE #2
"To the three seniors we brought to Sacramento -- I just want to say thanks, especially to Malik (Wilson) who ended his season. He's been through a lot and battled some injuries, so it was a valiant effort for him to get out there and compete. Also, Kiana (Hawn) and Juanita (Mainoo) competed well to advance to Eugene. A special thanks to all of them." --head coach Todd Harbour on the senior class.

Looks to me that Wil London will likely score the only points for our men in Eugene. The likely women are Kiana Horton (400), Aaliyah Miller (800), and the 4x4. Hopefully, some others will surprise.

Any determine why the 4x100 was so slow?

midgett said:

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Any determine why the 4x100 was so slow?

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CTH seemed to suggest it was because it was the first time the foursome had run together.

I also read a quote that seemed to say Malik Wilson wasn't 100% healthy.

CTH is a great coach. I think when left to his own devices, he knows what it takes to be a world-class athlete in college, how to prepare, how to compete and I believe him to be a solid tactician when it comes to both athlete and meet management. It leaves me to wonder if there are too many cooks in the kitchen, so-to-speak; if the number of assistants and volunteer assistants have led to a dilution of identity within the program. I wonder if he needs to take control and rededicate the staff to some loftier goals and expectations; or if the problem is more related to external obstacles that aren't being openly discussed. In any event, I have found myself having these same thoughts and hopes about "next year" for a number of years now and I am starting to wonder if this overall mediocrity (with a smattering of individual excellence, and excepting the women's conference title) is what we can continue to expect.

Will be tough for BU, or any private university, to compete for a national title in TF due to limited scholarships. Especially the men.

Kid getting a half scholarship from BU will essentially have the same out of pocket expenses as someone walking on with no aid to Texas or Aggy. When men get what, 12 scholarships or so, tough to field a full team and complete with that disadvantage.

BCS Bear said:

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Will be tough for BU, or any private university, to compete for a national title in TF due to limited scholarships. Especially the men.

Kid getting a half scholarship from BU will essentially have the same out of pocket expenses as someone walking on with no aid to Texas or Aggy. When men get what, 12 scholarships or so, tough to field a full team and complete with that disadvantage.

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We've always had this disadvantage and we have competed at a much higher level for 40 years before the last couple. It's not Texas and A&M that we should be beating (though we have often before), it's Tulsa and Akron and Georgetown and Arkansas-Little Rock and North Carolina A&T.

I don't know if ncaa meet standings projections are out, but within the past few weeks our men were ranked in the top 25 and I assume ahead of all the minor schools you listed.

All of those schools and other mids beat us last year and over the last few years. Many will do so again this year.

Of those schools you mentioned only Tulsa and Georgetown are comparable (private) and we qualified more individuals than either of them for both regionals and the NCAA meet. Tulsa has had success on the national level in the past few years primarily with a couple of foreign distance runners...it's not like they're qualifying dozens of individuals. BTW their coach was at Baylor back in the day, and in my opinion laid down the foundation of our women's program.

My point is that with each passing year the disparity in cost of attendance compared to state schools grows, and with it our competitive disadvantage in TF due to NCAA limits on scholarships. As recently as 2000 our tuition cost was around $300 per hour...or $9k per year. Say $5k more than Aggy (or any other state school). Today tuition and fees are $46k, or close to $28k higher than Aggy annually. That takes out a lot of potential walkons that could be developed.

Also I remember in past years we had significant participation in track from football...enabling us to fill out a team with full ride athletes that weren't counted against track scholarships. For the most part I don't see that same level of participation recently.

The one thing I do miss is dominating the 4x400....CCH could certainly identify talent in that area and coach them up.

We've had some significant contributions from a smattering of football athletes over the years, but only rarely have they been more than component pieces beyond the conference meet. It doesn't take a team of gifted walk-ons and 10 guys running for books and fees to make a splash on the national level. It takes athletes that can win at NCAAs to get you in the top 15. We haven't had enough of those guys lately. For whatever reason, we haven't been able to recruit 4 or 5 guys during the same stretch together with that kind of ability. The best we have been able to do is find 1 or 2 guys that could grab points in an individual event and then bond a relay together. Despite never having won a team National Championship, there is little doubt that over Baylor's athletic history, Track & Field has been the most consistently successful sport.

Our men have finished in the top half of the Big XII only 5 times in the last 16 years. We have scored single digits at the NCAA Outdoor Meet in 6 of the last 8 years, and in 2016 failed to score for the first time in 38 years. We failed to score a single point at the NCAA Indoor Meet this year for the first time in 37 years. We managed to get 1 point this year by the women indoors. In 2016, we went 1 for 4 at the NCAAs, as our women were shut out of both championships and the men scored 7 points indoors and none outdoors.

I have a lot of respect for Steve Gulley (I roomed with Steve on the road quite a few times when he was at Baylor), but Tulsa shouldn't be outscoring Baylor at the NCAAs. I don't care if it is cheaper to go to school at NC A&T, Northern Arizona, LIU Brooklyn, Middle Tennessee, UNC Greensboro, etc. Those guys shouldn't be able to get better full ride guys than a P5 school with a great track history like Baylor.

We are never going to fill out a roster with the breadth to consistently compete for conference championships, that's always been the case. But, we have finished in the Top 20 at the NCAA Outdoors 25 times out of the last 37 years (and before the last 8 years that was 23 out of 29). Conversely, we've only been Top 20 twice in the last 8 years. Those other six years we were 45th, 32nd, 49th, 58th, 74th and a Did Not Score. We haven't had a stretch like this in 45 years.

I have plenty of confidence that CTH can get Baylor back, but there's no question this is a rough patch.

Malbec said:

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Those guys shouldn't be able to get better full ride guys than a P5 school with a great track history like Baylor.

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Great points, especially the one above.

Over the past 8 years we've had a few that could have scored at NCAAs leave track early...Bromell and RG3 for example. Still, I agree with your thoughts.