Baylor T&F Prepped for 2024 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship
WACO, Texas – Baylor track and field is back home for the final time in 2024, hosting the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship, Thursday through Saturday, on the Banks of the Brazos River at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium.
The decathlon kicks off the three-day meet on Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. and the first day concludes with the women’s 10,000 meters after 9 p.m. Friday sees another morning start at 11 a.m. in the decathlon’s 110-meter hurdles before ending at the conclusion of the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase that begins at 8:20 p.m. The final day begins at 2 p.m. with the women’s discus throw and will end after the women’s 4x400-meter relay on Saturday night.
Conference champions will be crowned, and All-Conference performers will receive medals following each event on the infield podium.
Live results will be provided online by Delta Timing and each day will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. James Westling and John Nownes will be on the call for the running events in the late streams, while public address announcers Clyde Duncan, Jr., Don Garrett and Bart Castle will call the multi and field events in the early sessions.
Full meet info is available at BaylorBears.com on the Big 12 Meet Central page.
LAST TIME OUT
Before a week off to prepare for the postseason beginning at home, the Bears competed in a one-day meet at the University of Arizona, the Desert Heat Classic. The Baylor men put out a strong showing on the track, securing event wins in the men’s 400 meters from Nathaniel Ezekiel (with a conference-leading time) and the men’s 4x400-meter relay. Molly Haywood also took her third-straight win in the women’s pole vault competition at 14-4.
I AIN’T HERE FOR A LONG TIME, I’M HERE FOR A GOOD TIME
The Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship is making just its sixth stop at Baylor University in its 27th edition, crowing conference champions every year since 1997 except 2020. The first championship was held in Waco at the Hart-Patterson Track Complex on May 16-18, 1997. 8,500 fans packed into the off-campus facility, a staggering number that is second only to the 1999 edition of the meet held in Waco, where 8,700 fans were in attendance. The weekend also marks the second time the meet has been contested at the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium in its 10 seasons, with BU hosting for the first time at its new digs in 2018.
WELCOME TO WACOTOWN
BU hosts the current 14-school Big 12 Conference for a one-of-a-kind weekend in the history of the conference championship. The meet will feature the only outdoor championship with the newest additions, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, before two founding institutions from 1996, Oklahoma and Texas, depart for the SEC.
OH, HOW THEY’VE FALLEN
The Bears have toppled four total program records in the first five weeks of the outdoor season. Alexis Brown tabbed a 21-11 ½ at the Michael Johnson Invitational to take the long jump record for the second time this season, Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi threw for 271-8 at the African Games to win the javelin title with the record and Nathaniel Ezekiel improved his nearly two-year-old mark in the 400-meter hurdles to a 48.29 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Florida.
OUR NEWEST FIXER UPPER
Debuting the newly renovated Beynon Hobart BSS 2000 track surface, the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium hosted two regular season meets across March and April before hosting this weekend’s Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship meet. The stadium is in its 10th season and holds 5,000 spectators and participants with grandstands on both sides of the track.
MAKING A (TFRRS) LIST, CHECKING IT TWICE
Baylor features 24 individual and four relay entries on the NCAA DI West Preliminaries Qualifying List, in the ranks as a top-48 mark in an individual event and a top-24 mark as a relay. Of those, five are also featured in the top 10 nationally, with Nathaniel Ezekiel (No. 3, 400mH), Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi (No. 3, javelin throw), Alexis Brown (No. 5, long jump), Molly Haywood (No. 5, pole vault) and Alencia Lentz (No. 10, pole vault). Those who qualify will compete in Fayetteville, Ark., May 22-25 for a chance at the NCAA DI Championships in Eugene, Ore., in June.