Reveille Invitational opens 2016 indoor campaign for Aggies

Saturday, December 12

College Station

All Day

Texas A&M

Reveille Invitational

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Dec 09, 2015 | Track and Field

COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M's indoor track and field season begins Saturday as the Aggies host Houston and TCU in the Reveille Invitational at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium with finals starting at 3 p.m. This is the first of five collegiate home meets A&M will host during the 2016 campaign.

"It's the opportunity for us to test our athletes during their fall training," noted Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "But you get to test against somebody in a different color uniform. That heightens it a little bit.

"It's a test for us as a staff to see where our training is at this point with each one of these athletes and that's the most important thing we try to accomplish this week."

World silver medalist and two-time defending NCAA Champion Shamier Little opens her junior season with A&M in the 4x400 relay this weekend.

Little claimed NCAA titles in the 400 hurdles as a freshman and sophomore, then she earned a silver medal at the World Championships in Beijing this past summer. Indoors, Little will contest the 400 meters where she is the defending SEC champion and has placed third and fourth in the NCAA Indoor Championships the past two seasons.

A pair of 18-foot vaulters return in the pole vault for the Aggie men with Chase Wolfle and Audie Wyatt. Wolfle matched the school record as he became only the third A&M vaulter to clear 18-0 ½ indoors last season while accomplishing the feat as the SEC runner-up. Wolfle matched his career best height in placing fifth during the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Wyatt also cleared 18-0 ½ twice during the outdoor season in his freshman campaign. He achieved the lofty height in placing fourth at the NCAA Championships and to also win the USATF Junior title. Wyatt capped his first Aggie season with a silver medal performance at the Pan Am Juniors in Canada.

Joining Wolfle and Wyatt in the Reveille pole vault field is Gilliam facility record holder Jason Colwick, who swept the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor vault titles for Rice in 2009. Colwick cleared 18-4 ¾ in setting the Gilliam facility record in 2009.

"The indoor season is upon us and we start going at it this weekend," said Henry. "It's a long ladder until June, though. I try to approach it that way and we will continue to approach it that way. Each one of these meets are very important. Everybody has a different level right now and as coaches it's about us seeing where we are."

Aggie newcomers will make their debut for the Maroon and White on Saturday. Texas A&M's current men's and women's class of freshmen and newcomers were each recently ranked sixth in the nation by Track & Field News.

"I'm always pleased with our recruiting class, because I think with our staff it's always an area we've done pretty well with in determining who is going to be good in four years," noted Henry. "We are going to start them now, but it's about what they do in their time frame here. We approach it that way, because I want newcomers to try to contribute, but the older athletes should be our biggest contributors."

In the women's sprints freshmen Krystal Sparling and Brenessa Thompson compete in the 60 meters with Aggie All-American senior Jennifer Madu, who has placed in the NCAA 100 final the past three years. Frosh Diamond Spaulding opens in the 200 with another A&M All-American in junior Aaliyah Brown, the 2015 SEC 100m champion who placed fifth and sixth in the NCAA 100 and 200 finals, along with newcomers Jarra Owens and Glorilisha Carter.

Donavan Brazier's Aggie debut will occur in the men's mile as he challenges junior teammate Alex Riba. Later in the meet Brazier will run a leg on one of A&M 4x400 relays. Newcomers joining Brazier in the relay pool include Fred Kerley, Richard Rose, Ilolo Izu, Kris Bander, Robert Grant and DeWitt Thomas.

The 4x400 relay will also include a collection of post collegiate Aggies as Deon Lendore, Bralon Taplin, Shavez Hart, and Demetrius Pinder make up one relay unit while Gregory Coleman, Carlyle Roudette and Ricky Babineaux team up with former Houston sprinter Errol Nolan.

"We have some post-grads who want to try and run this weekend," said Henry. "It's an open meet, so besides Houston and TCU we allow some other athletes in this competition."

A couple of the top names among post collegiate athletes entered in the Reveille Invitational are Michelle-Lee Ahye, who equaled the Reveille 60 meters meet record of 7.23 last year, and Amy Acuff, a five-time U.S. Olympian in the high jump. Ahye, who will race in the 60 and 200 meters, placed fifth in the 2015 World Championships 100 final and was part of Trinidad & Tobago's bronze medal effort in the 4x100 relay.

In distance events A&M's Karis Jochen will race over 5,000 meters this weekend following her All-American performance in cross country. In the women's mile, Lauren Fontana and Laura Craig lead a squad of seven Aggies. A&M's middle distance runners contest a 1,000-meter distance, with five Aggies in the men's race and five in the women's race.

The women's weight throw features five A&M throwers with Alison Ondrusek and Carissa van Beek leading the crew. Ondrusek and van Beek finished sixth and eight last season in the SEC Championships as both produced career best marks over 61 and 60 feet, respectively.

Four Aggie men will compete in the pentathlon, led by last year's winner Daniel Martin, and the five-event competition also includes A&M's Nathan Hite, Rodney Ripley and Ben Zook. Annie Kunz will contest three events of the women's pentathlon – 60 hurdles, high jump and shot put.

The men's pentathlon along with a couple of field events, men's high jump and women's shot put, get started at 2 p.m.

2016 Texas A&M Indoor Schedule


December
	12	Reveille Invitational	College Station

January
	8-9	Texas A&M High School Classic	College Station
	15	Aggie Team Invitational	College Station
	16	Texas A&M 11-Team Invitational	College Station
	23	Texas A&M Quadrangular	College Station
	29-30	Razorback Invitational	Fayetteville, Ark.

February
	5-6	Texas A&M Charlie Thomas Invitational	College Station
	12-13	Tyson Invitational	Fayetteville, Ark.
	26-27	SEC Championships	Fayetteville, Ark.

March
	11-12	NCAA Championships	Birmingham, Ala.