Baylor T&F Completes First Day in Clemson, Boston

[Pirtle, Colin]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – February 10, 2023

Baylor T&F Completes First Day in Clemson, Boston
Adu wins bronze in weight throw
For more information contact: Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu<mailto:colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu>


CLEMSON, S.C. – Baylor track and field finished the first day of action at the Tiger Paw Invitational on Friday evening. The day was highlighted by juco-transfer Victoria Adu improving her Baylor-best mark to finish third in the women’s weight throw competition.



In Boston, Annamaria Kostarellis was the only Bear to race on Friday and she ran the third-fastest 5,000-meter race in the history of the Baylor program at 15:44.95, behind only Rachel Johnson in 2014 and 2015. She now sits at No. 2 in the 5,000 and No. 4 in the 3,000 in just her third meet as a Bear.



THE RUNDOWN

Adu’s 60-8 ½ thrown in the second round of the finals kept her in the No. 2 spot in BU history and improved her mark in only her second meet for the Bears. Makayla Long also competed, finishing with a personal-best of 55-9 ¼, ranked at 14th place.



The distance squad had another solid day on the track, with Sophia Leidner winning fourth after a 4:52.21 race. The second heat of the mile was dominated by Hayden Gold who finished eighth-overall, followed by Jordan Ledington in 15th.



Imaobong Uko improved on her collegiate indoor personal-best in the 400 meters on Friday, clocking a 53.04, a mark three-hundredths faster than her previous PB set in Lubbock during the 2022 season.



The men’s 400 meters featured Nathaniel Ezekiel leading the Bears with a 16th place finish at 46.58. Matthew Moorer finished in 25th place, Hasani Barr finished at 27th place and Dillon Bedell followed in 31st place.



Sophomore De’montray Callis ran a PB in the 60-meter semifinals of 6.66, just missing the final qualifying spot by nine-thousandths of a second. He qualified to the semis with a 6.76 finish in the preliminary round, 20th place overall.



Michaela Francois was another sophomore who qualified to the next round of the 60 meters, running a 7.35 in the prelims to clock a 7.36 in the semis. Her preliminary time ties her personal best of 7.35 set 364 days ago at the Texas Tech Shootout.



Freshman Gary Moore Jr., led the Baylor throws squad again in the weight throw, hitting 64-0 ¼, just under a foot shy of his program record. Cole Hardan followed in 10th place and a 60-11 ¼ throw, while Cooper Mack placed 16th with a PR-tying 56-2 ½ that was set in Albuquerque.



Keviah Ealy barely missed a program top-10 spot in the long jump on Friday, jumping to 19-6 ¾. Alexandra Rutenis followed at 19-2 ½ and Koi Johnson hit 18-2 ¼. In the men’s event, freshman Aren Spencer jumped for 22-5 ¾, while Luke Anthony followed at 21-0 ¾.



QUOTABLE

Head coach Michael Ford

On the team’s performance on Friday…

“I felt like we had good performances today and we are heading into the conference meet in the right direction. I thought the weight throw crew did well, especially Vicki [Adu] being at No. 2 all-time at Baylor. I thought Coach Fredrick and mile runners did great, and we had some personal bests in the sprints in the 60m and 400m. I am looking forward to wrapping it up tomorrow.”



WHAT’S NEXT

Baylor returns for Day Two of the Tiger Paw Invite on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT.



- BaylorBears.com -

_________________________________________
Colin Pirtle | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (T&F, XC, MTEN)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 940-564-0351

[signature_2230589939]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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