Feb. 28, 2009
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College Station - A solid day of qualifying along combined with a decent scoring tally from day one has the No. 1 Texas A&M women poised to chase for a third consecutive Big 12 Indoor title on Saturday.
Hosting the Big 12 Indoor Championships for the first time the Aggies prospered during qualifying rounds in front of a home crowd that numbered 3,146 fans. Action continues at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
The Texas A&M women qualified 14 individuals to Saturday finals that required prelim races on Friday. That was the leading mark among Big 12 women's teams. Baylor advanced nine while Texas had seven.
Porscha Lucas cruised to leading times in the 60 and 200 with marks of 7.24 seconds and 23.07 seconds during the qualifying prelims.
Her 60 time, which placed the junior sprinter closer to the 7.23 A&M school, is the second fastest collegiate mark this season while her 200 time took over the collegiate lead for 2009 and is second fastest in the U.S. and world lists. Lucas, the defending conference champion in the 200, holds the A&M school mark of 22.83.
"I am really excited about my 60 time," noted Lucas. "It's been frustrating this season that my time has been consistently at 7.30, but I was able to drop my time down today. It was a PR for me. I was happy with the 200 as well; it was my season best.
"The conference meet is a very important and I feel I am more mentally prepared and physically ready for this meet along with the rest of the team."
Four more A&M women followed Lucas into the 200 final - Allison George (23.57), Khrystal Carter (23.79) - while three additional sprinters made the 60 final field in Mayo (7.38), Carter (7.41) and George (7.42).
The No. 6 Aggie men advanced 11 individuals as well to lead the Big 12 men with Baylor and Texas qualifying 10 apiece.
Trinity Otto leads the heptathlon with 3,218 points after the four events contested on day one. Another three events follow on Saturday. Otto holds a 25-point margin over Lars Rise of Missouri and has 53 points on Texas Tech's Chuck Zavala.
A surprising event for the A&M men was the 60 meters where four Aggies qualified for the eight-person final. Gerald Phiri led the field with a 6.66 clocking ahead of 6.68 by Baylor's Trey Harts and a 6.72 from the Bears Whitney Prevost.
The other three Aggies moving into the final were Dominique Stafford (6.76), Justin Oliver (6.77) and Tran Howell (6.78).
Oliver also advanced in his specialty event, the 400, with a time of 46.70 that bettered his previous indoor best of 46.73 led qualifying. Oliver bettered the Baylor trio of Marcus Boyd (46.75), LeJerald Betters (46.80) and Quentin Summers (46.82).
Howell and Phiri also reached the finals of the 200. Howell posted a 21.22 with Phiri getting in with his 21.28.
In the 60 hurdles De'Lon Isom neared his personal best of 7.86 with a 7.96 that was fourth best on the day. He entered the Big 12 meet seeded ninth.
Nebraska holds the lead after day one in both the men's and women's team standings.
The Cornhusker women amassed 56 points on Friday and lead Texas Tech (35), Kansas State (28), Missouri (21), Oklahoma (21), and Texas A&M (19).
Nebraska men totaled 42.5 points followed by Iowa State (24), Texas (22), Oklahoma (21), Missouri (21) and Oklahoma State (19). The A&M men currently have 14 points and are in eighth place.
Eight points for the Aggie men came from a second-place effort in the distance medley relay where the foursome of Nick Toohey, Michael Preble, Oscar Ramirez and Kevin Ondrasek posted a time of 9:47.19 behind the winning mark of 9:42.18 set by Texas.
More points were claimed in the long jump as Julian Reid, the defending champion, reached a distance of 25-6 for fifth place while teammate Tyron Stewart finished seventh with a mark of 25-2 ½.
The A&M women picked up eight points in the pole vault, seven in the long jump and four in the 5,000 meters.
Ashika Charan placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 20-3 ½ while Christina Munoz ran the 5K in 16:46.57 for fifth.
Then three Aggies had the same height clearance of 12-1 ½ in the pole vault with Jennifer Davidson tied for sixth with another vaulter.
Additional qualifying events had Beard leading the 400 at 52.99 while teammate Brittany Machacek was the eighth qualifier at 55.22. Mayo paced the 60 hurdles with an 8.34 while Thomas had the third best mark at 8.46.
In the 600 yard race Sandy Wooten continued her progression in the event running the second best qualifying time of 1:22.33 to set a personal best.
The men advanced two runners in the 1000 meters with Toohey (2:25.73) and Matt Ross (2:26.44) each posting career best marks while Ondrasek (4:07.14) qualified for the mile final with a personal best.