March 4, 2010
Texas A&M will send a group of six athletes to Fayetteville, Arkansas this weekend for a NCAA qualifying meet held at the Tyson Track Complex, site of the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Competition will be held on Friday with Aggies competing in five events. The group includes Sasha-Kay Matthias (long jump / triple jump), and Vashti Thomas (triple jump).
In the 200 Phiri will seek to lower his season best of 21.05, which currently ranks 22nd, to a sub 21 second time. Last season a 20.94 was needed to make the field. Phiri, who has an indoor career best of 21.01, will have a bit of company from Big 12 sprinters in the 200 at Arkansas as Baylor's tandem of Trey Harts and Whitney Prevost are both entered.
Preble (47.34) will try to join three other Aggies in the NCAA 400 field. Last season a time of 46.63 was the cutoff mark to make the national meet. In the 800 Ramirez sports a season best of 1:50.30 while Roberts has clocked a 1:52.38 and they will likely need a low 1:49 to earn a spot in the national championship field.
For the A&M jumpers Thomas is currently tied at 17th on the national descending order list with a best of 20-8.5 in the long jump and 24th in the triple jump with a mark of 42-1.5. Matthias, meanwhile, is 21st in the triple jump (42-3.5) and 24th in the long jump (20-6.25). Last season a 20-8 mark made the long jump field while a 42-8.75 distance qualified for the triple jump.
The women's long jump begins at 2 p.m. with the triple jump set to start at 6:30 p.m. On the track the 400 will be run at 6:30 p.m. followed by the 800 at 6:40. Then the 200 will take place at 7:45 p.m. Live results from the meet are available at www.flashresults.com.
NCAA Qualifiers
Texas A&M has 12 automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championships, which will be held March 12-13 on the University of Arkansas campus. All of those dozen automatic qualifiers, which include seven for the men and five for the women, currently rank among the top six in the nation. The Aggies also have 24 provisional marks (14 women, 10 men).
The A&M men's 4 x 400 relay has a world leading time of 3:04.86 while Jessica Beard is second in the world in the 400 meters with her 51.15 winning time from the Big 12 Championships. Beard ran the fastest time ever by an American on an oversized track in Ames, Iowa and ranks sixth among Americans and collegians in the 400 on the all-time indoor list.
Other Aggies with the second fastest time among collegians this season include Porscha Lucas (23.06) in the 200, Zuheir Sharif (54-3.75) in the triple jump. Ranked third collegiately are Tabarie Henry (45.81) in the 400 and Natasha Ruddock (8.06) in the 60 hurdles.