Baylor blisters to Big 12 meet

Baylor's winning 4x400 relay team poses with head coach Michael Ford (center). From left to right, Baylor's Big 12 title relay team included Dillon Bedell, Nathaniel Ezekiel, Matthew Moorer and Hasani Barr.

NORMAN, Okla. — Three flat makes everyone else be flat. The Baylor Bears reached that magic number in flattening the field in the 4x400 relay on Sunday.

Baylor set a conference meet and facility record in blazing its way to a win to close out the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Oklahoma's John Jacobs Track Complex. The Bears won gold going away in a time of 3:00.73, as Oklahoma was the next-nearest finisher, nearly three seconds later, at 3:03.64.

The time was Baylor's second-best of the year behind the 3:00.61 it ran at the Texas Relays, and marked the eighth-best time in program history. Baylor's school record is 3:00.04, set in 2007.

Matthew Moorer gave BU the lead after the opening leg, but the race was still relatively tight after a lap, with a bunched-up pack at the exchange. Baylor's No. 2 leg Hasani Barr changed that, stretching to a lap of about 10 meters before passing off to Nathaniel Ezekiel for the third leg. Ezekiel widened BU's lead even more and then Dillon Bedell put everyone way in the rear-view even deeper with a 44.92-second split on the anchor.

The win was Baylor's 28th all-time outdoor conference title in the men's 4x4.

Baylor Men's 4x400 Relay set a new Big 12 Meet & Facility Record at 3:00.73! // via BaylorAthletics on YouTube

The Baylor men finished with 70 points, seventh in the team standings. The BU women were sixth with 54.5 points. Baylor's only other conference title of the meet came Friday, courtesy of Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi in the men's javelin.

Heading into Sunday, BU sophomore Nathaniel Ezekiel looked like a sure bet to win the Big 12 title in the 400-meter hurdles, coming off a meet-record time of 48.74 in Saturday's prelims. And Ezekiel brought a hot pace again, actually lowering that record time to 48.52. Amazingly, though, that was good enough only for silver for Ezekiel, as Texas Tech junior Caleb Dean ran a personal-best 48.39 on his way to the win.

Baylor also picked up a silver medal from grad transfer Annamaria Kostarellis in the women's 5,000-meter run. Kostarellis came in at 16:02.99, 10 seconds faster than the bronze medalist and behind only winner Cailie Louge of Iowa State in 15:54.60.

BU junior Kamden Jackson sprinted his way to a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash, clocking in at 20.62. He also buzzed to a time of 10.26 in the 100-meter final, which was fifth in that blistering race. Texas Tech teammates Courtney Lindsey and Terrence Jones finished 1-2 in a photo finish, with Lindsey running 10.076 to Jones’ 10.080.

The BU men's 4x100 relay team placed third, clocking 39.12 behind Jackson, De’Montray Callis, Moorer and Bedell.

On the women's side, Baylor's sprint relay powered to a time of 43.75 seconds, tying for the fifth-best time in program history. BU's foursome was made up of Mariah Ayers, Imaobong Uko, Bria Bullard and Michaela Francois. Texas won gold, lowering its own collegiate record time in the process to a staggering 41.89.

Ayers posted a time of 23.08 seconds in the women's 200, finishing third.

Next up for Baylor will be the NCAA West Prelims May 24-27 at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. The NCAA Outdoor Championships are slated for June 7-10 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

China Spring defensive end/tight end Greydon Grimes committed to Baylor on Friday.

We haven't even seen the new-look Big 12 truly take shape, and already more additions could be on the way.

Faced with replacing the entire starting backcourt, Baylor coach Scott Drew made a major move Thursday by landing a commitment from former Tol…

All-Big 12 guard Adam Flagler has opted to stay in the NBA Draft after spending the last four years at Baylor.

There must be something in the water in Mars, Pennsylvania, because J.J. Wetherholt was out of this world. In a breakout sophomore season at W…