March 27, 2009
ASU Invitational HEATS
TEMPE, ARIZ. - In the second week of the outdoor track and field season the Texas A&M Aggies will display their speed in the desert as they compete in the Arizona State Invitational Saturday on the Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium.
Texas A&M will square off against a couple of Big 12 foes in Kansas State and Nebraska while Georgia represents the SEC and Ohio State and the Illinois men are entered from the Big 10. Other teams scheduled to compete at ASU are Air Force, Colorado State, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Northern Arizona, St. Louis and UC Riverside.
After opening the outdoor season with 18 regional qualifiers amid 10 victories and a dozen runner-up performances at the USC Trojan Invitational, the Aggies will have more individual action from those athletes who competed in the NCAA Indoor Championships a couple of weeks ago.
Five meet records were set last season during the 2008 Arizona State Invitational and Texas A&M may threaten a few this weekend. The Sun Devil track also features the same Mondo surface used in the Beijing Olympics and present at Texas A&M's Gilliam Indoor Stadium.
The Aggies enter the meet as current collegiate leaders in the 4 x 100 for both the men and women as well as the men's 4 x 400. In Los Angeles the A&M sprint relay squads posted victories in 39.32 and 43.67 seconds, respectively. The Aggie women are two-time NCAA defending champions in the 4x1 while the men were NCAA silver medalists last season.
A 3:08.13 winning time for the A&M men at USC claimed the early outdoor leader's position. The Aggies have claimed silver medals in the 4x4 at the past two NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Action begins at 10 a.m. (PDT) on Saturday morning with a crew of seven Aggies competing in the discus. Running events begin at 5 p.m. with the 100 (De'Lon Isom).
Porscha Lucas, a two-time NCAA silver medalist in the 200, will make her season debut in the 100 meters along with Gabby Mayo, the 2009 Big 12 Indoor 60 meter and 60 hurdle champion. Last weekend Mayo opened her outdoor campaign with a 13.37 victory in the 100 hurdles, bettering her previous career best of 13.60 set in 2006 when she was a junior in high school.
Elizabeth Adeoti, Khrystal Carter, Ashika Charan, Allison George.
In the men's 200 De'Lon Isom, C.J. Jones, Trinity Otto and Julian Reid.
Justin Oliver and Kyle Dykhuizen, Brandon Machacek, Michael Preble, Joey Roberts and Ashton Young.
Sandy Wooten, the Big 12 Indoor 600-yard champion, and Brittany Machacek are entered in the women's 400. They were both part of the NCAA Indoor Champion 4 x 400 relay team this season along with Beard and Lucas.