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Go Bears!
Track Grabs Four Titles on Final Day of Big 12 Championships
Junior Reggie Witherspoon completes sweep of 400 meters; men and women sweep mile relays, men add 4x100-meter crown.
Junior Reggie Witherspoon won the 400-meter title at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships Sunday.

Junior Reggie Witherspoon won the 400-meter title at the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships Sunday.

May 14, 2006

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WACO, Texas - Baylor junior Reggie Witherspoon (Marietta, Ga.) added the outdoor 400-meter title to go along with his indoor crown in the event, and the Bears won the men's 4x100-meter and mile relays and the women's mile relay on the final day of the 2006 Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships Sunday at Hart-Patterson Track & Field Complex.

Witherspoon, who was the High Point Performer at the indoor championships by winning the 200 and 400 meters, clocked a season-best time of 45.90 to claim his third conference title of the season. Freshman Quentin Iglehart-Summers (San Antonio, Texas) made a brilliant comeback on the home stretch to finish third with his season-best of 46.35, while junior Mark Teter (San Antonio, Texas) finished eighth in 47.54.

"I saw the guys from Texas Tech coming up on me at 200 and coach (Clyde Hart) is always telling us to work that second curve, so that's what I did and I was able to hold on at the end," Witherspoon said. "It's the best feeling in the world to be able to win in front of your home crowd with the people who support you cheering you on."

The men's mile relay of freshman R.J. Anderson (Big Pine Key, Fla.), junior Kevin Mutai (Round Rock, Texas), Witherspoon and Iglehart-Summers were placed in the first heat due to the team standings and posted a time of 3:06.58, which held up after the second heat. The Bears claimed their ninth straight Big 12 outdoor title and 18th straight overall in the event, including nine straight indoor titles. In the second heat, Texas A&M fell just short of the Bears' time, running 3:06.66.

 

 

The men's 4x100-meter relay of senior Jerome Miller (Houston, Texas), Witherspoon, freshman Queito Teasley (Katy, Texas) and freshman Jacob Norman (Temple, Texas) put everything together and claimed the title with a time of 39.41, their best of the season. The Bears received an outstanding anchor leg from Norman, who came from behind over the last 40 meters.

The women's mile relay of junior Lauren Tilllman (Lawrenceville, Ga.), junior Kandace Tucker (Irving, Texas), freshman Katrina Taylor (Baton Rouge, La.) and senior Angel Perkins (Cerritos, Calif.) clocked 3:33.25 to clip Texas A&M at the tape as the Aggies ran 3:33.29. Tucker was outstanding over her last 200 meters, Taylor was solid and closed the gap a little more to set Perkins up for a great anchor leg, in which she steadily closed ground and pushed through first in the end.

Freshman Erin Bedell (Plano, Texas) one of the Bears' two second-place individual finishes in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:21.29 as she was clipped at the tape by Missouri's Amanda Bales with a time of 4:21.21. Bedell and Bales were nearly even with a little more than 200 meters to go when Bedell pushed out front, but Bales kicked in over the last 30 meters and leaned ahead for the win. Junior Ruth Waller (Manchester, England) finished sixth with a time of 4:33.91.

"Erin made a bold move but couldn't hold on," head coach Todd Harbour said. "Amanda has been the bridesmaid so many times, so she wanted it pretty bad."

Perkins wrapped up an outstanding meet as she ran a season-best 52.27 to finish second in the 400 meters and 23.17 to finish third in the 200 meters. In addition to anchoring the mile relay to the title, she ran the third leg on the women's 4x100-meter relay, which also consisted of senior Marquisha Sefas (Ft. Worth, Texas), Tucker and Grace, and finished second in 44.22.

Tucker finished fifth in the 100 meters in 11.60, while Grace finished eighth in 12.85 after pulling up with a leg injury. Tucker also finished fifth in the 200 meters in 23.30.

Junior Monique Ortega (El Paso, Texas) took third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:37.19, while sophomore Lyndsy Bedell (Plano, Texas) finished fourth in 10:45.20. Freshman Charity Williams (Corpus Christi, Texas) also scored for the Bears, placing sixth with a regional qualifying time of 10:48.58.

Sophomore Lauren Hagans (Little Rock, Ark.) finished fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:07.42. In the 400-meter hurdles, Tillman finished fourth with a time of 1:00.52 and senior Shanta Bibbs (San Antonio, Texas) finished seventh in 1:04.71.

In the field events, sophomore Brittany Devereaux (Denton, Texas) took fourth in the discus with a school-record mark of 52.74 meters (173-00). Freshman Stasia Kelly-Taylor (Atlanta, Ga.) finished 13th in the triple jump with a mark of 11.62 meters (38-1 ½).

On the men's side, senior Wil Fitts (DeSoto, Texas) finished fourth with a time of 1:48.64 in the 800 meters, and Norman eighth in the 100 meters after pulling up near the finish with an apparent hamstring injury. Miller finished fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.97 and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles in 51.30.

In the field events, senior Austin Heape (Dallas, Texas) finished 17th in the shot put with a mark of 15.43 meters (50-7 ½), while sophomore Josh Camp finished 16th in the triple jump with a leap of 13.16 meters (43-2 ¼).

Overall for the meet, Baylor claimed two individual titles and three relay titles, while the Bears received 25 All-Big 12 performances. The women finished fifth in the team standings with 83 points, while the men finished seventh with 67 points.

"Overall, I was very pleased," Harbour said. "I saw a lot of outstanding efforts from a lot of different people and we received some great individual performances from people like Angel, Reggie and Erin. Conference titles hard to come by, especially in the Big 12. There were a few disappointments and a couple of things that kept us from finishing higher, but we'll focus this week on getting ready for the regional and look forward a good showing at the national championships."

The Bears have 23 regional qualifying performances and will return to action at the NCAA Midwest Regional May 27-28 in Austin, Texas, before advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif.

For a complete wrapup of the 2006 Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships, including meet notes and quotes from the individual champions, please visit the Championships Central page at http://baylorbears.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stats/030206aab.html.