Jan. 29, 2010
College Station - A pair of personal best scores for Aggies Bonnie Richardson and Daphne Fitzpatrick in the pentathlon highlighted Friday's action at the Texas A&M Challenge
Through a pair of distance running finals the Pac-10 has an early lead in both the men's and women's scoring at the Texas A&M Challenge being held at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
With 51 points the Pac-10 women have the lead followed by the Big 12 at 37 and the SEC with 23. In the men's conference scoring the Pac-10 leads with 42 points followed by the Big 12 at 14 and the SEC with six.
Richardson, the A&M freshman who won a pair of State 1A team titles as the lone person representing her team, contested her first pentathlon and scored 3,647 points while teammate Fitzpatrick finished third with 3,627 points.
On the A&M all-time list Richardson is now No. 7 performer while junior Fitzpatrick moves up to No. 8 as she improved on her previous best score of 3,358 points.
Richardson opened the competition with an 8.94 (922 points) in the 60 hurdles, and then cleared 5-5.75 (818) in the high jump. In the shot put her best effort was 39-6.5 (664) and she long jumped 16-4.5 (557). The final event, the 800 meters, produced a time of 2:30.51 (686).
Fitzpatrick's marks included a 9.19 (871 points) in the hurdles, 5-8 (891) high jump, 34-9 (568) shot put, 17-0.75 (614) long jump and a 2:30.82 (683) in the 800.
In the men's distance medley relay Texas A&M's foursome of Wes Careras (3:01.32), Kyle Dykhuizen (46.72), Joe Sauvageau (4:12.20) posted the sixth fastest time on the Aggie all-time indoor list with a 9:49.69.
Texas A&M's Amanda Jenkins posted a time of 17:42.92 to place eighth in the 5,000 meters.
Oregon's Brianne Theisen, who placed third in the NCAA pentathlon last March in College Station and then went on to win the NCAA heptathlon outdoors, claimed the heptathlon win with 4,198 points.
Ashton Eaton, Oregon's NCAA heptathlon and decathlon champion, is on pace to challenge the collegiate record of 6,208 set by Trey Hardee of Texas in 2006 at altitude in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Through four events in the heptathlon Eaton has scored 3,445 points. Hardee had a total of 3,477 on day one of his record.
Finals on the first night of the Texas A&M Challenge had Oregon surpassing the NCAA automatic mark in the men's and women's distance medley relay.
Oregon women won in 10:59.64 ahead of Arkansas (11:15.70) and Baylor (11:18.03). Jordan Hasay led off the Ducks with a 3:21.49 while Keisha Baker blasted a 51.72 split on the quarter. Then Anne Kesselring split 2:05.99 while Nicole Blood anchored in 4:40.46.
The Oregon men raced to a 9:29.82 victory over Stanford's 9:30.25. Arkansas placed third (9:33.12) with Baylor and Texas A&M both finishing in 9:49.69. Mac Fleet led off the Ducks in 2:54.37, Chad Barrow went 47.33 as Elijah Greer covered the 800 in 1:49.09 before A.J. Acosta anchored in 3:59.05.
Stanford went on to sweep the top three positions in the women's 5,000 led by Georgia Griffin's 16:38.25. The Pac-10 had a 1-2-3 sweep in the men's 5,000 as Stanford's Jake Riley won in 13:52.87.