March 24, 2010
TEMPE, Arizona - Texas A&M will be among 19 teams competing at the Arizona State Invitational this weekend. Competition begins Friday with the hammer at 1 p.m. (PST) and continues on Saturday with a full slate of events, beginning at 10 a.m. with field events followed by a 4 p.m. start for running events.
The field of teams entered in the Arizona State Invitational includes: Arizona (m), Arizona State, Boise State, Colorado (m), Cornell (w), Duke, Georgia, Grand Canyon, Kansas State, Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Purdue, Southern Utah, Texas A&M, UC Riverside, Weber State, Western State (m) and Wyoming.
National team rankings for the outdoor campaign will be released by USTFCCCA on March 30.
After one week of action in the outdoor season the Aggies already have four collegiate leaders in javelin thrower Sam Humphreys, long jumper Melvin Echard, the women's 4 x 100 relay and the men's 4 x 400 relay. Meanwhile, nine other A&M athletes have posted marks that currently rank among the top 10 on the 2010 collegiate list.
Humphreys threw a career best of 240-3 to win the Carolina Spring Break Classic with a meet record. He currently tops the NCAA list by nearly eight feet over a 232-4 from BYU's Sean Richardson.
While Humphreys is No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list, his mark was the third best effort in March by an A&M thrower. A pair of throws that measured 243 feet was produced in the month of March by Jarrad Matthews (243-10 in 2004) and Nery Kennedy (243-8 in 1996).
Echard won the long jump this past weekend with a windy 24-9 3/4 effort. He will compete in the triple jump this weekend while teammate Trinity Otto and triple jumper Zuheir Sharif to run a 4 x 100 relay.
The A&M women's 4 x 100, NCAA champions the past three years, opened with a 44.10 victory in Puerto Rico with the line-up of Elizabeth Adeoti, Jeneba Tarmoh, Dominique Duncan and Gabby Mayo. The Aggies will run three relays in the 4 x 100 this weekend.
This week the main sprint relay is scheduled to have Tarmoh leading off followed by Porscha Lucas, Duncan and Mayo. Running on the second unit are Sasha-Kay Matthias and Ashika Charan.
A time of 43.18 is the fastest Texas A&M has posted during the month of March. That mark was set in 2008 during the Florida State Relays. Another fast time set during meets held in March recently includes a 43.40 at the Texas Invitational in 2008. Last year in Tempe the Aggies won in 43.82 with Arizona State challenging at 43.92.
For the men's main 4 x 100 relay the line-up is schedule to include Curtis Mitchell. The current collegiate leading time is a 39.48 set by TCU on its home track this past weekend.
In the men's 4 x 400 the Aggies currently hold a two-second advantage over the next best time in the nation with its winning time of 3:07.44 from Puerto Rico. They are scheduled to run Howell, Bryan Miller, Tabarie Henry and Demetrius Pinder in Tempe.
Jessica Beard will open her outdoor season in the 200 meters this weekend. Last year at the ASU Invitational Beard set the meet record and recorded a personal best of 23.15 seconds.
The list of A&M athletes with current top 10 marks on the season include:
Men
200: =6. Tran Howell, 21.18; =6. Demetrius Pinder, 21.18.
4 x 400: 1. Texas A&M, 3:07.44; 6. Texas A&M II, 3:10.76.
Long Jump: 1. Melvin Echard, 24-9 3/4w.
Javelin: 1. Sam Humphreys, 240-3.
Women
100H: 5. Natasha Ruddock, 13.50.
400H: 3. Andrea Sutherland, 58.42.
4 x 100: 1. Texas A&M, 44.10.
Pole Vault: 8. Laura Asimakis, 12-11.
Triple Jump: 5. Tiffany Peters, 41-5.
Javelin: 9. Emalie Humphreys, 158-5; 10. Laura Asimakis, 157-6.