Jan. 26, 2001

Box Score

HOUSTON, Texas - Baylor's men's and women's indoor track and field teams appear to be in good shape to make a second-day run here Saturday at the Southwest Indoor Classic hosted by the University of Houston. After Friday's first day of competition, Baylor's eighth-ranked men's team is second with 29 points, while the women's team, currently tied for 20th nationally, is in fourth place with 22 points.

On the men's side, Texas, which is tied for No. 12 nationally along with Texas A&M, is ahead of the field with 49 points, followed by Baylor, Rice (28), Texas Tech (15), Sam Houston State (12), Texas A&M (10) and Houston (2).

As for the women, Texas A&M and Rice lead through first-day action with 28 points each. However, the field is not far behind, starting with tied-No. 7 Houston at 26.5 points. Baylor is followed by Nevada-Las Vegas in fifth (19.5), Sam Houston State (15), No. 1 Texas (10) and Jackson State (2).

Baylor picked up points on the men's side in three events. The Bears scored 10 points in the distance medley final, finishing first with a time of nine minutes, 57.36 seconds. In the 5,000 meters, Alex Adler and Andrew Matina provided Baylor with six points and one point, respectively, Adler finished third with a time of 15:12.36, while Matina took sixth with a time of 15:54.67.

Jim Autenreith provided the Bears with an additional eight points, finishing second in the pole vault at 5.15 meters (16 feet, 10.75 inches). Charley Donaldson added four points with his fourth-place height of 4.90 meters (16-00.75). Sky Jones and T.J. Henderson tied for fifth, both clearing heights of 4.75 meters (15-07), but were not awarded points.

Despite the large gap between Texas and Baylor on the men's side, the Bears will have ample opportunity to make up ground, especially in the 400 meters where Baylor shined Friday. The Bears had runners in five of nine heats and won all five races.

Bayano Kamani took Heat 1 with a time of 49.43 seconds, Joel Martin took Heat 2 at 49.64 and Zsolt Szeglet turned in the second-best time of the day at 48.88 to win Heat 3. It was Ryan Kedley pacing the field in Heat 4 with a time of 50.00, and Michael Smith won Heat 9 at 49.52. Those five athletes will advance to Saturday's final heat. Luke Austin also finished second in Heat 3 with a time of 50.16, and Robert Quiroga placed third in Heat 9 at 50.85.

On the women's side, Baylor got points in five events, including eight points for a second-place finish in the distance medley final with a time of 12:06.02. Kim Cook earned six points with a third-place time of 18:18.60 in the 5,000 meters. Baylor also got four-point, fourth-place finishes from Cynthia Benson and Rachael Roessler. Benson cleared 1.63 meters (5-04.25) in the high jump, while Roessler posted a distance of 13.81 meters (45-03.75) in the weight throw.

Three Baylor women advanced through preliminaries. Ssereta Lafayette paced Heat 4 of the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.66, advancing with the sixth-fastest time. Tamara Johnson's time of 25.10 in Heat 5 of the 200 meters was second in the heat and seventh overall. Tiffany Wise advanced out of Heat 3 in the 400 with a second-place time of 56.95, the seventh-best time on the day.

Competition will conclude here Saturday afternoon.