March 29, 2009
TEMPE, ARIZ. - Impressive sprint times highlighted action from the Texas A&M track and field team amid a pleasant, cool evening of racing during the Arizona State Invitational on Joe Selleh Track and Sun Angel Stadium on Saturday.
On a day of significant achievements across the board for the Aggies, Porscha Lucas turned in the top performance with an 11.24 second winning time in the women's 100 meters.
Texas A&M totaled nine victories in the meet with six runner-up finishes and eight third-place efforts. The men produced five of the wins with two runner-up and two third-place finishes. The Aggie women turned in four wins, along with four second-place and six third-place efforts.
There were 24 regional qualifying marks achieved by A&M - 16 for the women, and eight for the men.
In three events the A&M squad recorded a sweep of the top three places - the women's 100, women's 200 and men's long jump. The Aggie women claimed the top five places in the 200, led by a career best effort of 23.15 from Jessica Beard.
Lucas led a 1-2-3 sweep in the event for A&M with a meet record time. She bettered the previous mark of 11.49 set by USC's Candice Young in 2000 and came very close to the facility record of 11.13 recorded by Jamaica legend Merlene Ottey back in 1985.
In posting a mark equal to the No. 10 performance on the Aggie all-time list, Lucas also equaled the collegiate leading mark for 2009 with her wind-legal 11.24.
Following Lucas were Elizabeth Adeoti (11.71) placing sixth. Yasmine Regis won her section in 12.31 and placed ninth overall. Mayo moved to No. 4 on the A&M all-time list while Duncan is now No. 10.
Beard's career best in the 200 bettered the meet record of 23.64 established by Saidatu Onanuga in 2001 and moved her to No. 4 on the A&M all-time list. Beard won the fourth of five sections with Allison George placing second in 23.54.
Khrystal Carter led another trio of Aggie sprinters across the line in the fifth section with a 23.65 to place third overall. Duncan (23.68) and Adeoti (24.03) finished fourth and fifth overall. Ashika Charan placed fourth in Beard's heat with a 24.90 and finished 11th.
The Aggie men went 1-2-4-5 in the 200 led by Chris Dykes first sub-21 second clocking of the season. Dykes sped to a 20.87 mark with Morquise Cleveland won another section in 21.36 and placed fifth overall. Other A&M entrants in the 200 included Trinity Otto turning in a 21.68 to place 10th overall.
Justin Oliver claimed an impressive victory in the 400 with a 46.19 performance, with Illinois' Lesiba Masheto runner-up in 46.31. Bryan Miller finished third in 46.65. Michael Preble (47.79) and Joey Roberts (47.86) went 1-2 in another section of the 400 and placed sixth and seventh overall.
In the women's 400 Sandy Wooten (55.70) placed second and third behind Notre Dame's Joanna Schultz (53.65).
Earlier in the evening, the A&M women sprinters recorded a winning time of 43.82 seconds in the 4 x 100 relay with the running order of Carter, Lucas, George and Mayo. Arizona State finished second in 43.92 while a second Aggie foursome of Adeoti, Duncan, Vashti Thomas, and Charan placed third in 45.52.
The men's 4 x 100 relay had trouble with the final exchange and did not finish. They ran with a squad consisting of Howell, Phiri, Dykes and Oliver. Georgia missed their exchange on the second hand-off. Arizona State won the race in 39.79.
Texas A&M claimed both 4 x 400 relays to close out the evening. The Aggie women, NCAA Indoor champions, cruised to a seven-second victory with a clocking of 3:38.02. The line-up included George (55.8), Machacek (55.8), Wooten (54.2) and Beard (52.2). A second women's squad ran 3:50.98 to win its heat and place sixth overall.
The men's quartet of Howell (47.7), Miller (45.9), Cleveland (46.8), and Oliver (46.1) recorded a winning time of 3:06.53 as they put a healthy gap on Illinois (3:08.38), Arizona State (3:08.52) and a foursome from the Oregon Track Club (3:08.63).
A second men's crew of Brandon Machacek (48.8), Roberts (47.4), Ashton Young (48.1) and Preble (48.3) won its section in 3:12.62, nearly seven seconds ahead of the Air Force and placed seventh overall.
Keenan Hall led the Aggie 1-2-3 sweep in the men's long jump and earned a regional qualifying mark with his winning effort of 24-3 ¾ (7.41). Zuheir Sharif finished third with a 23-5 ½ (7.15) leap. De'Lon Isom won the men's 110 hurdles with a 14.11 clocking while Vashti Thomas finished second in the women's 100 hurdles with a 13.95. Courtnie Allen ran 1:02.67 for sixth place in the 400 hurdles.
Hali Henderson hit a mark of 133-3 (40.62) to place 10th.
Angela Thomas and Tiffany Peters placed third and fourth in the triple jump. Thomas turned in a mark of 40-7 ½ (12.38) while Peters reached 40-6 (12.34).
Aly Daily placed sixth in the women's pole vault with a clearance of 12-1 ½ (3.70) and is now the No. 5 performer on the A&M all-time list. Jennifer Davidson finished 10th with a mark of 11-7 ¾ (3.55).
Career best efforts attained in the field events included a vault of 16-2 ¾ (4.95) for Chad Stoermer, who placed fifth. Stoermer had a clean sheet on his first four attempts as he cleared those heights on his first attempt. He had three shots at the regional qualifying mark of 16-6 ¾ (5.05).
In the shot put Nick Cook reached a distance of 54-3 ¾ (16.55) to place fifth. Eric Motter finished eighth with a 50-4 (15.34) put. Cole Knuth finished 10th in the discus with a toss of 152-8 (46.54) with Motter in 11th at 151-3 (46.11).
Solid performances in the distance events had Oscar Ramirez winning his section of the 800 in personal best 1:51.04 as he held off a pair of post collegians in Colorado's Stephen Pifer (1:51.36) and Indiana's Tom Brooks (1:51.79).
Ramirez placed fifth overall while Matt Ross (1:53.28) were 10th and 14th overall.
In the 1,500 Graham Northcutt (3:55.24), MacLean O'Donnell (3:59.23) and Jeremy Warren (4:02.98).
Emilie Fischer ran 17:57.64 for sixth place in the 5,000.