May 1, 2009
AUSTIN - Texas A&M track and field will compete in its final regular season meet this Saturday in the Texas Invitational hosted at Myers Stadium. A collection of in-state schools will have athletes in the meet prior to competing in various conference meets later this month.
The schools include Baylor, Houston, Sam Houston, Rice, TCU and Texas State in addition to the Aggies and host Longhorns. National rankings updated this week have the A&M women No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week while the Aggie men dropped to No. 3 behind new No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Oregon.
Post collegians will also be in the meet including a pair of A&M NCAA champions in Simone Facey and Clora Williams as well as Aggie volunteer assistants Brenda Faluade, Aries Merritt, Wallace Spearmon and Kelly Willie.
Admission to the event is free. Field events begin at 11:30 a.m. with the women's hammer and women's javelin. Running events start at 4 p.m. with the 4 x 100 relays.
A&M heads into the month of May with world leading marks for both the men's (1:20.32) and women's (1:30.28) 4 x 200 relay, while collegiate leading marks have been set by Jessica Beard (51.52) in the 400 and the women's 4 x 100 relay (42.91).
With the Big 12 Championships set for May 15-17 in Lubbock the Aggies have six additional events in which they have the top conference mark on the season. They include Gerald Phiri (10.21w) in the men's 100 as well as the men's 4 x 100 relay (38.79).
Conference leaders on the women's side include Porscha Lucas (23.01) in the 200, Yasmine Regis (44-5.5w) in the triple jump and Laura Asimakis (163-3) in the javelin.
In Houston on Wednesday the Aggie women throwers registered a win and a pair of runner-up performances. Anteneshia Lindsey won the discus with a toss of 161-3 (49.16) to better the field by nearly seven feet.
In the hammer Deidre Tarver surpassed 174 feet for the third time this season with a mark of 174-1. It trailed the winning distance by only four inches. In the javelin Ilsa Rodriguez reached a season best distance of 130-4 for second place.
On the men's side Nick Cook was the top collegian in the shot put with a mark of 53-0 (16.15). Eric Motter had a runner-up finish in the discus as he threw the platter 156-8 (47.76) and he added a third-place effort in the shot put with his mark of 52-5.5 (15.99).
Top 25 National Rankings - as of April 29 (bold teams in Texas Invitational)
WOMEN: 1. Texas A&M; 2. Oregon; 3. LSU; 4. Arizona State; 5. Florida State; 6. Virginia Tech; 7. Texas; 8. Tennessee; 9. USC; 10. Baylor; 11. Michigan; 12. BYU; 13. Penn State; 14. Miami; 15. Arkansas; 16. Washington; 17. Florida; 18. Nebraska; 19. Minnesota; 20. Auburn; 21. UTEP; 22. South Carolina; 23. Stanford; 24. Texas Tech; 25. UCLA.
MEN: 1. Florida; 2. Oregon; 3. Texas A&M; 4. Arizona State; 5. Florida State; 6. LSU; 7. Auburn; 8. Arkansas; 9. South Carolina; 10. Baylor; 11. Nebraska; 12. California; 13. Texas; 14. Washington; 15. Texas Tech; 16. Kentucky; 17. Stanford; 18. USC; 19. Georgia; 20. Virginia Tech; 21. BYU; 22. Arizona; 23. Louisville; 24. Tennessee; 25. Washington State.