Two years later, she transferred to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on a sports scholarship, training as a member of the BYU Cougars track and field squad under the tutelage of head coach Craig Poole.

While competing for the Cougars, Mark-Baird placed ninth in the heptathlon at the outdoor NCAA Championships and had contributed to a stalwart, runner-up finish for the women's track and field team at the Western Athletic Conference in San Diego, California, on her junior year.

Her first major global outing came at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she attained a personal record of 5706 points to take home the silver medal for Trinidad and Tobago.

[8][9] Mark-Baird put up a startling effort in the javelin throw to accumulate a Trinidad and Tobago record total of 5962 points, but slipped to twenty-fifth overall from her position in Sydney four years earlier.

Upon watching U.S. swimmer Dara Torres and fellow sportsman and table tennis player Dexter St. Louis compete at the age of 41 in Beijing 2008, Mark-Baird sought her sights of planning an Olympic comeback.