Baylor Track & Field: Lightfoot, Tidwell and Nugent Highlight Day One

Fri Feb 26 23:35:49 CST 2021

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – February 26, 2021

Baylor Track & Field: Lightfoot, Tidwell and Nugent Highlight Day One
Nugent broke Tiffani McReynolds’ Baylor indoor record in the 60-meter hurdles.

*COMPLETE RESULTS ATTACHED*

LUBBOCK, Texas – KC Lightfoot and Tuesdi Tidwell swept the pole vault titles, and Ackera Nugent ran the fastest time in the NCAA 60-meter hurdles this season to lead Baylor on day one of the 2021 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday at the Sports Performance Center.

“I thought it was a very, very good first day,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “It’s never perfect, but we had a lot that really stepped up and competed. We had some that got to the finals that maybe weren’t expected to according to depth charts or form charts. I thought they did a great job.”

Tidwell gave Baylor its first win of the day, recording a pole vault of 14-4 (4.37m) to take home the title. The senior from Early, Texas, battled back from two misses at 13-6.25 (4.12m) to outlast the field and win her first-ever conference championship.

Lightfoot won his third-consecutive Big 12 indoor pole vault title, setting the conference meet record with a mark of 19-4.25 (5.90m). The junior from Lee’s Summit, Mo., took two shots at 19-8.25 (6.00m) and one at 19-9 (6.02) before calling it a day.

“We haven’t ever had two in the pole vault, both men and women, win Big 12 titles,” Harbour said. “Even with all of our history, we’ve never had wins in the same year on both sides. That was big.”

Nugent made arguably the biggest splash of the day, putting a time of 7.91 on the board to break Tiffani McReynolds’ Baylor indoor record and tie the best U20 60-meter hurdles mark in world history. The freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, now holds the top time in the NCAA this season and is tied for eighth in the world.

“Ackera, obviously - school record, meet record, everything,” Harbour said. “World junior record, as well. What can you say about that one? That was impressive.”

Cole Hardan broke his own school record in the weight throw, recording a mark of 61-10.25 (18.85m) to place fifth and score four points for the Bears.

“That was big for Cole,” Harbour said. “He’s been knocking on the door. He finally put it together today, so that was good for him. I think that will give him some momentum going into the shot put tomorrow.”

Alyssa Miller put on a show in the women’s pentathlon to start the day, recording four personal bests en route to a fifth-place finish with 3,792 total points. The junior from McKinney, Texas, put four points on the board for Baylor while becoming the fourth-best pentathlon performer in school history.

“Alyssa (had personal bests) in four of the five events,” Harbour said. “When you do that, you can’t be disappointed. I know she would have liked to have had just a little better outcome at the end, but she competed really hard. I was proud of her today.”

Through one day, both the Baylor women and men are in fifth place with 23 and 21 points, respectively.

Several Bears qualified for Saturday’s finals, including: Kennedy Bailey (women’s 60-meter hurdles); Deshaun Jones and Eli Morris (men’s 60-meter hurdles); Sydney Washington, Caira Pettway and Demitra Carter (women’s 60 meters); Kamden Jackson (men’s 60 meters); Lily Williams (women’s 600 yards); Chris DuPree (men’s 600 yards); Kavia Francis (women’s 400 meters); Hasani Barr and Matthew Moorer (men’s 400 meters); Mazie Larsen (women’s 1,000 meters); Aaliyah Miller (women’s 800 meters); and Arria Minor and Mariah Ayers (women’s 200 meters).

“We had a lot of qualifiers, a couple more than we expected,” Harbour said. “Some of them are in pretty good shape. We just have to get a good night’s sleep and go back and get after it again tomorrow. We had a really solid first day.”

Big 12 Now on ESPN+ will carry the final day of the Championship with Lincoln Rose and Johanna Gretschel providing the commentary. Coverage can be found at https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/800553e7-3692-465e-8c6d-50a2cfdb6162#bucketId=22508.

Live Results from Lubbock will be provided by PrimeTime Timing at https://live.pttiming.com/?mid=2112. The Bears will kick off Saturday with the women's shot put at 1 p.m. CT.

For continued updates on the Baylor Track & Field team, follow the team's social media accounts all season long: @BaylorTrack.

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Kellen Coleman | Associate Director of Communications
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
O: 254-710-4049 | C: 254-749-6507

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