Baker advances in 400 hurdles; USA mixed 4x4 relay doesn't get to run; Caicedo wins in Poland...

In Lima, Peru, Carnation resident Braelyn Baker (photo courtesy Duke University Athletics) cruised through to an easy second place finish in her heat of the 400 hurdles in the first round of that event Wednesday morning at the World Athletics Under 20 championships.

Baker ran 59.31, as Mila Heikkonen of Finland won the heat in 58.68.

Friday's semifinals will run at 1:35 pm Pacific/3:35 pm local time.

For those wondering why the University of Puget Sound's Alex Rhodes and Washington State's Grant Buckmiller weren't running in Tuesday's qualifying and finals of the mixed 4 x 400 relay, in which the United States was the defending champion, it's because of a clerical error on the part of USA Track & Field.

According to The Oregonian, USATF released a statement saying that the Team USA mixed 4x400-meter athletes were not entered into the system correctly. The participants named to the team were ineligible for the event.

There were unconfirmed reports that USATF missed a deadline to enter the relay team on the World Athletics entry portal.

“USATF explored every potential solution possible with World Athletics to resolve the situation, however the team were unable to run,” the statement from USATF reads. “We apologize for this oversight.”

Both Rhodes and Buckmiller are in Lima on the men's 4 x 400 relay pool which goes on Friday, with the finals on Saturday.

Thursday, Florida State rising sophomore Andre Korbmacher from Bellingham runs in the first round of the men's 110 hurdles at 8:20 am Pacific/10:20 am local time.  In the first round, the top 2 from each of the eight heats, plus the eight fastest time qualifiers advance to the semifinals at 1:30 pm Pacific/3:30 pm local time.

The World Athletics microsite is available here.

In Szczecin, Poland, Washington State alum Maribel Caicedo (Jarosław Dulny photo) won the top section of the women's 100 hurdles at the International Wiesław Maniak Memorial meeting Wednesday night.

Caicedo, the NCAA runner-up in the event for the Cougars and Ecuadorian Olympian, ran 13.05 into a -1.1 meter per second headwind to take the victory over Yanique Thompson of Jamaica.

Also, Total Sports Management announced in a short message to publisher Paul Merca that the Johnson City, Tennessee based company is now representing Caicedo.

In the men's 1500, Henry Wynne (Jarosław Dulny photo) of the Brooks Beasts followed pacesetter Adihana Kasaye of Ethiopia, but faded to sixth.

Wynne ran 3:36.88, as Thomas Keen of Great Britain won in a personal best 3:35.80.

Washington State alum Paul Ryan was 13th in 3:41.48.

Former Washington Husky Wilma Nielsen of Sweden was sixth in the women's 800 in a time of 2:02.54.

American Addy Wiley won in a meet record 1:56.83.

Results of the International Wiesław Maniak Memorial meeting are available here.

NOTE: World Athletics, USA Track & Field, OregonLive.com, and the International Wiesław Maniak Memorial meeting contributed to this report.

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