April 24, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - Smooth baton passes and a comfortable winning margin allowed the Texas A&M women's 4 x 100 relay to cruise to a victory in 43.10 seconds before 39,501 fans on a sunny and warmer Friday afternoon at the 115th Penn Relay Carnival in Franklin Field.
It marked the second consecutive year for the Aggie women to claim a first-ever Penn Relays trophy in a relay event. Last year they won the 4 x 200 for the first time at the Penn Relay Carnival.
Winning the event by a full second were Khrystal Carter, Porscha Lucas, Allison George and Gabby Mayo. Last season the Aggies were runner-up to LSU in a very close finish, 42.59 to 42.69.
"The weather definitely had been a factor in the race," noted Lucas of the mid 70s Friday, a 20 degree improvement on Thursday. "Yesterday it was cold and our time wasn't as good as we know it could've been. Today it warmed up and we definitely had a better time."
Auburn finished second to A&M with a 44.13 clocking. Rounding out the field were North Carolina (44.79), South Carolina (44.82), Tennessee (44.89), TCU (44.90) and Connecticut (45.46). Two-time defending champion LSU did not get the baton around the track.
"I feel like they were our main competition," Mayo said of LSU. "If they were in it at the end I think we could've run a lot faster. I'm sorry they didn't make it around, but I'm happy we still won."
Keenan Hall finishing fourth with a mark of 24-1.5 (7.35). Stewart, who hit his winning distance in the final round, won the event by one inch over Carl Morgan of Middle Tennessee as he moved from third to first.
"It was a slow start for me with the way the wind was swirling in that corner of the stadium," Stewart said. "On my last jump things clicked well enough for me to move into the lead and get the win.
"This will give me good momentum going into the next competition now that I have a Philly meet under my belt. Even though I didn't jump my best it was good enough for the win today."
Texas A&M, two-time defending NCAA Champions in the sprint relay, posted the sixth fastest time in Penn Relays history. It was also the third fastest time the Aggies have run this season, trailing their collegiate leading 42.91 from the Texas Relays earlier this month and a 43.08 from the LSU Alumni Gold meet last weekend.
Currently on the 2009 world performance list, A&M has three of the top four marks run this season. They only trail the 42.62 mark set by USA Elite when they finished ahead of the Aggies' 42.91 in the Invitational 4 x 100 at the Texas Relays.
"I think the hand-offs were went better than we practiced," George said. "The last few weeks our hand-offs have been shakey, I had been starting out with the wrong leg or not getting out, but yesterday and today were two of the best we've ever had."
Carter added: "We worked so much on our hand-offs, just running and pushing, so everything came together and just worked out. I think it was one of the best hand-offs that we've had, so I'm glad we got it done here."
Friday finals also included a runner-up finish for Angela Thomas placed fourth. Peters produced a mark of 42-0.75 (12.82) while Thomas reached a distance of 40-9.75 (12.44). The winning mark of 42-6.75 (12.97) by LSU's Melissa Ogbourne was wind-aided.
In the Championship division of the women's triple jump Yasmine Regis finished third with a 43-2.25 (13.16). Teammate Ashika Charan placed sixth with a 41-8.75 (12.72).
In the men's Championship long jump Julian Reid hit a mark of 25-0.75 (7.84) for fourth place. Finishing ahead of Reid were LSU's Jeremy Hicks (26-3), Nicholas Gordon of Nebraska (25-6) and Arkansas' Tarik Batchelor (25-4.75).
An Aggie sprint medley relay had problems on the first exchange and ended up finishing 26th of 42 teams with a time of 3:20.28. Running on the relay were Morquise Cleveland, Michael Preble and Oscar Ramirez.
In qualifying races the Aggies advanced the men's 4 x 100 (39.90), 4 x 200 (1:22.03) and 4 x 400 (3:07.92) along with the women's 4 x 200 (1:32.65) to Championship of America finals. Hurdler De'Lon Isom (13.93) was the only Aggie to reach a final among A&M individual entries in the 100, 100 hurdles and 110 hurdles.
Saturday's action, which will feature live television coverage on ESPN2 from 3 p.m. to 5 pm.(CST), starts at 12:25 p.m. for the Aggie men's 4 x 100 and concludes at 4:25 p.m. with the men's 4 x 100.