April 29, 2009
College Station - Texas A&M and Texas will have two dual meets in 2010, an indoor version in College Station and an outdoor version in Austin. The announcement was made during the Friday portion of the Penn Relay Carnival.
"I thought our dual meet indoors was an important thing to get started this year," Aggie head coach Pat Henry said. "Texas coach Bubba Thornton and I felt it was great for track, the state of Texas and our athletes. Plus it’s a great competition.
"We're striving to have competitions where you line up and run against people in a scored situation."
The 2010 schedule will feature dual meets for both the men and women in the Aggies versus Longhorns rivalry. The indoor dual will be held January 23 at A&M's Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium while the outdoor version will be held April 10 at Myers Track Stadium in Austin.
"Having a dual with the Texas men and women is an important part of this whole deal," Henry added. "Texas women's coach Bev Kearney and I have had some discussion about this and we are on the same page. This is good for track and field, and this is what needs to happen in our sport right now. As coaches we are committed to make this happen."
Texas head coach Bubba Thornton noted: "We are very excited about adding these dual meets to our schedule. The team concept is very important to us and the dual meets are a way for every person on the team to contribute. It gives them a chance to compete with something on the line."
This past indoor season the Aggies hosted an undercover dual between the two schools in its new Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium with A&M claiming a 81-77 victory over the Longhorn men. The Aggie women also won a dual with the Tennessee women, 83-69, during that weekend.
A crowd of 3,016 fans, with an A&M student turnout of 927, christened the Gilliam Indoor facility during the 2009 dual meet, which was completed in three hours.
"That's a key element in this, the time of the meet," Henry said. "While it's a head-to-head competition in a scored meet, more importantly you showcase every event in about a two-and-a-half to three-hour window. People can come to a track meet, watch it and then go home, but not be there all day long. That’s very important."
This year's dual meet in College Station marked the first dual between the two programs since the late 90s when Texas won the 1997 men's dual (89-74) and women's dual (79-65) while the Aggies were victorious in a men's dual held in 1996, 98-55.