Annie Kunz breaks school record to win pentathlon at Charlie Thomas Invitational
Feb 05, 2016 | Track and Field
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M senior Annie Kunz recorded an Aggie school record score of 4,363 points to win the pentathlon on the first day of action in the Charlie Thomas Invitational at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium on Friday.
It improved her previous best tally of 3,994 points in the 2013 SEC Championships and bettered the school record mark of 4,193 points set by her roommate Jena Hemann in the 2014 NCAA Championships.
"It's just so exciting, and it's great to see all my hard work pay off," said Kunz. "To start off with a PR in the hurdles got me on the right foot, I think, for the whole pentathlon. High jump couldn't have gone any better. Everything kind of fell into place today. I couldn't be happier with the result.
"Jenna and I are roommates. It was so great competing with her the past few years. She told me I was the only one she would be happy with to beat her record. It's an awesome moment."
In the men's heptathlon A&M's Lindon Victor is the first day leader with 3,248 points and has a chance to break the Aggie school record of 5,499 points set by Trinity Otto in 2009 when the competition continues at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Finals on Saturday start at 2 p.m. while Aggie senior introductions will begin at 1:20 p.m. in the final home indoor meet of the season for Texas A&M.
Looking to produce a score high enough to place among the top 16 collegiate marks in the country for an entry into the NCAA Championship field, Kunz delivered four career best marks among the five events she contested in the pentathlon.
Her 4,363 total currently ranks eighth in the world, third in the U.S. and fourth among collegians for the 2016 season.
"I redshirted my junior year of track to play soccer and that worked out great for soccer," noted Kunz. "Coming into this year I wanted to stay healthy and having fall training under my belt made all the difference.
"I was able to work on my technique, build an endurance and just get into track shape since it is so different from soccer shape. Everyone thinks soccer and track are very similar, but they're not. It was nice to be able to have that fall training to build the foundation I needed for tonight."
Kunz started off with a career best of 8.51 in the 60m hurdles for 1,015 points as she bettered her previous best of 8.65 from 2013.
Then in the high jump Kunz cleared two heights past her previous indoor best of 5-7 ¾ (1.72) in getting over 5-10 (1.78) and 5-11 ¼ (1.81) on first attempts. She then attempted 6-0 ½ (1.84), but missed all three tries with her last effort the closest to getting over.
The clearances of 5-11 ¼ scored 991 points for Kunz as she moved to equal No. 4 on the Aggie all-time indoor list with the equal No. 8 performances. Her two event score of 2,006 moved Kunz into the overall lead by 134 points.
"With the pentathlon the progressions in the high jump aren't has high, so they go up an inch every time," said Kunz. "I was a little nervous I was getting too many jumps in, but since I cleared on my first attempt for all of them it really set me up to be able to jump 5-11 today."
A shot put effort of 41-11 ¼ (12.78) added 713 points to her score while a 19-6 (5.94) personal best in the long jump contributed 831 to give her 3,550 points heading into the final event, the 800 meters.
Running a time of 2:34.00 would give Kunz the school record by one point, while matching her career best of 2:24.00 would create a score of 4,320. Instead she posted another career best in clocking 2:20.78 for 813 points.
Finishing behind Kunz in her school record performance were a pair of post collegians in Jessica Flax (4,179) and Amber Metoyer (3,988), while UTEP's Lucia Mokrasova (3,950) finished fourth.
Aggie Shaina Burns placed 15th in the pentathlon after not clearing a height in the high jump. Burns scored 2,888 points off a 9.31 in the hurdles. 43-9 ¾ in the shot put, 17-1 ½ in the long jump and a 2:31.74 in the 800.
Victor leads the heptathlon over Grenada's Kurt Felix (3,206), UTSA's Adrian Riley (2,962) and A&M's Nathan Hite (2,951). Other Aggies in the field include Daniel Martin (8th – 2,699), Ben Zook (9th – 2,661) and Rodney Ripley (12th – 2,387).
A 6.99 in the 60 meters scored 886 points for Victor and he added 826 points with a 23-1 ¾ (7.05) long jump. In the shot put Victor's mark of 43-2 ¼ (13.77) scored 714 points while a 6-7 ½ (2.02) high jump turned in 822 more points.
Events also contested on the first day of the Charlie Thomas Invitational included the distance medley relay and 5,000 meters.
The Aggie men ran 9:59.88 to place second to Clemson (9:53.80) in the distance medley relay with a second A&M squad (10:03.25) placing third. In the women's relay the Aggies posted an 11:59.87 to finish third behind Clemson (11:43.98) and Rice (11:52.89).
Juan Uribe placed fifth in the men's 5,000m with a time of 14:54.49 while Kaitlin Tanner finished sixth in the women's race with a 17:59.13.
It improved her previous best tally of 3,994 points in the 2013 SEC Championships and bettered the school record mark of 4,193 points set by her roommate Jena Hemann in the 2014 NCAA Championships.
"It's just so exciting, and it's great to see all my hard work pay off," said Kunz. "To start off with a PR in the hurdles got me on the right foot, I think, for the whole pentathlon. High jump couldn't have gone any better. Everything kind of fell into place today. I couldn't be happier with the result.
"Jenna and I are roommates. It was so great competing with her the past few years. She told me I was the only one she would be happy with to beat her record. It's an awesome moment."
In the men's heptathlon A&M's Lindon Victor is the first day leader with 3,248 points and has a chance to break the Aggie school record of 5,499 points set by Trinity Otto in 2009 when the competition continues at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Finals on Saturday start at 2 p.m. while Aggie senior introductions will begin at 1:20 p.m. in the final home indoor meet of the season for Texas A&M.
Looking to produce a score high enough to place among the top 16 collegiate marks in the country for an entry into the NCAA Championship field, Kunz delivered four career best marks among the five events she contested in the pentathlon.
Her 4,363 total currently ranks eighth in the world, third in the U.S. and fourth among collegians for the 2016 season.
"I redshirted my junior year of track to play soccer and that worked out great for soccer," noted Kunz. "Coming into this year I wanted to stay healthy and having fall training under my belt made all the difference.
"I was able to work on my technique, build an endurance and just get into track shape since it is so different from soccer shape. Everyone thinks soccer and track are very similar, but they're not. It was nice to be able to have that fall training to build the foundation I needed for tonight."
Kunz started off with a career best of 8.51 in the 60m hurdles for 1,015 points as she bettered her previous best of 8.65 from 2013.
Then in the high jump Kunz cleared two heights past her previous indoor best of 5-7 ¾ (1.72) in getting over 5-10 (1.78) and 5-11 ¼ (1.81) on first attempts. She then attempted 6-0 ½ (1.84), but missed all three tries with her last effort the closest to getting over.
The clearances of 5-11 ¼ scored 991 points for Kunz as she moved to equal No. 4 on the Aggie all-time indoor list with the equal No. 8 performances. Her two event score of 2,006 moved Kunz into the overall lead by 134 points.
"With the pentathlon the progressions in the high jump aren't has high, so they go up an inch every time," said Kunz. "I was a little nervous I was getting too many jumps in, but since I cleared on my first attempt for all of them it really set me up to be able to jump 5-11 today."
A shot put effort of 41-11 ¼ (12.78) added 713 points to her score while a 19-6 (5.94) personal best in the long jump contributed 831 to give her 3,550 points heading into the final event, the 800 meters.
Running a time of 2:34.00 would give Kunz the school record by one point, while matching her career best of 2:24.00 would create a score of 4,320. Instead she posted another career best in clocking 2:20.78 for 813 points.
Finishing behind Kunz in her school record performance were a pair of post collegians in Jessica Flax (4,179) and Amber Metoyer (3,988), while UTEP's Lucia Mokrasova (3,950) finished fourth.
Aggie Shaina Burns placed 15th in the pentathlon after not clearing a height in the high jump. Burns scored 2,888 points off a 9.31 in the hurdles. 43-9 ¾ in the shot put, 17-1 ½ in the long jump and a 2:31.74 in the 800.
Victor leads the heptathlon over Grenada's Kurt Felix (3,206), UTSA's Adrian Riley (2,962) and A&M's Nathan Hite (2,951). Other Aggies in the field include Daniel Martin (8th – 2,699), Ben Zook (9th – 2,661) and Rodney Ripley (12th – 2,387).
A 6.99 in the 60 meters scored 886 points for Victor and he added 826 points with a 23-1 ¾ (7.05) long jump. In the shot put Victor's mark of 43-2 ¼ (13.77) scored 714 points while a 6-7 ½ (2.02) high jump turned in 822 more points.
Events also contested on the first day of the Charlie Thomas Invitational included the distance medley relay and 5,000 meters.
The Aggie men ran 9:59.88 to place second to Clemson (9:53.80) in the distance medley relay with a second A&M squad (10:03.25) placing third. In the women's relay the Aggies posted an 11:59.87 to finish third behind Clemson (11:43.98) and Rice (11:52.89).
Juan Uribe placed fifth in the men's 5,000m with a time of 14:54.49 while Kaitlin Tanner finished sixth in the women's race with a 17:59.13.
Players Mentioned
Multi
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and Field
Multi
/ Track and FieldSEC Championships Preview: Pat Henry
Wednesday, February 25
NCAA West Preview: Pat Henry
Tuesday, May 27
Pluckers Playmakers: Episode 5
Wednesday, May 07
44 Farms Preview: Pat Henry
Thursday, April 10
