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<h1 align="right" style="text-align:right"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 22, 2025<o:p></o:p></span></b></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">Baylor T&F Sweeps 2025 Big 12 Outdoor Performers of the Year<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Alexis Brown & Nathaniel Ezekiel both claim conference titles<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">For more information contact:
</span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Josie Hutton; 254-709-7720,
</span><a href="mailto:josie_hutton@baylor.edu"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">josie_hutton@baylor.edu</span></a><u><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:blue"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">IRVING, Texas –</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"> Baylor track & field came away big as Alexis Brown and Nathaniel Ezekiel both won
Big 12 Outdoor Performers of the Year while Brown additionally won Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the first time Baylor has swept both Performer of the Year honors.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">This marks as only the fifth time since the voting began in 1997 that the same school earned Male and Female Performers of the Year. Brown, defending her 2024 outdoor award,
is the first Baylor woman to earn Performer of the Year in back-to-back years. Ezekiel, having already won the honor in the indoor season, is the first Baylor man to earn Performer of the Year for the outdoor season since Trayvon Bromell in 2015 and the first
male athlete since 2019 to earn Performer of the Year in both the indoor and outdoor season.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">With Brown claiming both the Performer of the Year and the Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she becomes the first Baylor woman to win Scholar-Athlete of the Year since the voting
began in 2013. Additionally, the graduate is only the second female in the Big 12 to win both Performer of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Both athletes have had tremendous outdoor seasons, putting Baylor on national watch as both are on the Bowerman Watch List. At the Big 12 Outdoor Championships, both Bears
had remarkable performances, putting up top marks in NCAA history. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">On the first day of competition at Rock Chalk Park, Ezekiel ran a 47.90 time in the preliminary round of the 400mH, breaking his own meet record set in the previous year, the
BU program record, the Nigeria national record and became the seventh fastest DI athlete in NCAA history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Two days later in the final round, Ezekiel did it all over again, improving his time to 47.89. Ezekiel leads the NCAA in the event by nearly a full second.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Earlier during the regular season at the UCF Knights Invite, the Nigerian made his outdoor season-debut in the 400 meters. Ezekiel put up one of the nation-leading marks in
the 400m at 44.75, a new personal best. Ezekiel's mark put him tied for ninth in Baylor's historic Quarter-Mile U program marks. The senior is the first Bear to crack the top-10 program marks since Wil London in 2017.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">On day two of the conference championship, Brown took part in the long jump competition, looking to defend her outdoor title while having already won the indoor title. In her
first jump of the day, Brown leaped to 7.03 meters, 23'0.75", to achieve national status. By extending her seven-meter mark, the Kennedale, Texas, native became No. 1 in the world 2025 outdoor season, No. 3 in collegiate history, tied for No. 8 in American
history and the second-best American collegiate ever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">In the 4x100 relay with the team of Kelley, Lowe, Brown and Francois, the group defended the title, winning the event in back-to-back years with a season-best mark of 42.73
which ranks No. 2 in the NCAA this season.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Merely an hour later in the 100m final, Brown sprinted for a big PR of 11.08, just 0.02 seconds shy of the BU school record to finish second. Brown now ranks tied for 10th
in the NCAA.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Brown’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor comes from maintaining a 3.96 cumulative GPA while she pursues her master’s in Business Administration.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">NOTABLE HONORS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• First time since 2022 that the same school has earned Male and Female Performer of the Year and only the fifth time since the voting began in 1997 (2025, 2022, 2012, 2003,
1997). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• Brown is the first Baylor woman to earn Performer of the Year in back-to-back years and the first since 2023 in Julien Alfred of Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• Brown is only the second female in the Big 12 to win both Performer of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year since the voting began in 2013, the other being Julien Alfred
of Texas in 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• Brown is the first Baylor woman to win Scholar-Athlete of the Year since the voting began in 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• Ezekiel is the first Baylor man to earn Performer of the Year for the outdoor season since Trayvon Bromell in 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">• Ezekiel if the first male athlete since 2019 in Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech to earn Performer of the Year in both the indoor and outdoor season.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">WHAT’S NEXT<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">The two Big 12 Outdoor Performers of the Year and the rest of the Bears will complete in the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds hosted in College Station, Texas from May 28-31.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyText" align="center" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.baylorbears/"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">- BaylorBears</span></i></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">.com</span></i></span><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">
-<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="layout-grid-mode:both"><b><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:#0F5C1A">Josie Hutton</span></b><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"> | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (FB, T&F/XC, MTEN) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="layout-grid-mode:both"><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">Department of Athletics | Baylor University<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="layout-grid-mode:both"><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black">C: (254) 709-7720<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="layout-grid-mode:both"><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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