North Texas Daily

Quentin Hope / Staff Writer

The Mean Green track and field team left Waco with 29 top-five finishers and a new school record as it competed at the highly recognized Baylor University Quad meet Friday for its second outdoor meet of the season.

Junior thrower John Garrish finished his day with a new school record in the hammer-throw, which earned him second place honors.  Garrish had a huge throw of 191-05 feet, besting the previous school record by more than 20 feet. The throw might have wowed others, but for Garrish, it was something similar to his personal best.

“It was nuts,” Garrish said. “It felt like all the hard work finally payed off and hopefully just the beginning with a lot of room for improvement. I wasn’t completely too high on the throw, but it was sweet.”

Freshman Silverster Harrison finished just short of first place in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:01.35 in his first collegiate outdoor meet.

“It came down to the last 200-meters,” Harrison said. “I thought I was going to win for the majority of the race up until the last 50 meters when I realized I wasn’t going to catch the guy because I tightened up, so I tried to stay relaxed.”

Although the Baylor Quad might have been a competitive meet for UNT, the competition is only a baby brother compared to the level of competition they will see this weekend at the Texas Relays and the Bobcat Invitational.

The Texas Relays is a nation-wide track meet held at the University of Texas. The meet will bring track and field programs from across the country to showcase their talent.

Meanwhile, the Bobcat Invitational – held at Texas State University, will be the programs that missed the Texas Relays qualifying marks.

Senior distance runner Josephine Adams is no stranger to the Texas Relays and knows what is expected of her and the few Mean Green athletes that will be headed to Austin. Adams admits not being in the best shape when she ran in the Relays last year but feels she’s ready for redemption.

“I’ve gotten so much more confident knowing now that I can stay with the pace whereas last year I was running with the elite runners and being nervous,” Adams said.