April 29, 2010
AUSTIN - Texas A&M track and field travels to Austin on Saturday for the Texas Invitational, the Aggies final regular season meet prior to the Big 12 Championships in mid May. Field events begin at 11:30 a.m. at Myers Stadium and running events will start at 4 p.m. The meet is scheduled to conclude around 8:45 p.m.
Julian Reid will see his first action in the long jump and triple jump during the outdoor season this weekend. A foot injury hampered the All-American jumper during the indoor season and then sidelined him for the majority of the outdoor campaign.
"First off I just want to go out there and get everything done correctly, like I've been doing in practice for the past couple of weeks," said Reid, who sports career best marks of 26-5.5 (8.04) and 55-8.5 (16.98). "I'm very excited. I haven't competed since the indoor nationals in March. So, I'm hoping to get technical stuff done before Big 12s. I've been watching my teammates work hard and every day they remind me that they need me back for the team.
"During my time away from competitions everything has been mental for me. I've been jumping in my head every day. I'll long jump first this weekend and then hopefully get at least three jumps in the triple jump afterwards. That will allow me to brush away some of the rust from the time off. Right now is the ideal time for me to come back and compete for the team."
A trio of Aggie female sprinters will run their first 200 meters of the outdoor season. Defending NCAA 200m champion Porscha Lucas along with Gabby Mayo and Jeneba Tarmoh will race for the first time outdoors over the 200-meter distance. Their first race was scheduled for two weeks ago, but rains canceled that portion of Baylor's Michael Johnson Classic.
Lucas, Mayo and Tarmoh teamed up for a pair of relay titles at the Penn Relays this past weekend. With Dominique Duncan added to that line-up A&M defended its 4 x 100 title in 43.09. Then in the 4 x 200, with Jessica Beard running with that trio of sprinters, the Aggies broke a six-year-old collegiate record with a 1:29.42 clocking as the won the event for the third consecutive year.
Mayo was part of a third Penn Relay victory and another collegiate record when she teamed up with Donique' Flemings and Natasha Ruddock to claim the 4 x 100 shuttle hurdle relay in 52.50 seconds. This weekend Ruddock, Thomas and Flemings will run the 100 hurdles. Flemings is also set to run the 400 hurdles with teammates Andrea Sutherland and Courtnie Allen.
The A&M men will have nearly a full crew in the 400 with Kyle Dykhuizen, Eric Gosset, Joe Snelick.
Following the conference meet in Columbia, Missouri, on May 14-16, the Aggies will return to Austin for the NCAA West Preliminary Round on May 27-29. That meet will serve as the first two rounds of the NCAA Championships. The top 48 individuals and top 24 relays from the West region qualify for the preliminary round meet. Then the top 12 from the region move on the NCAA Championship field in Eugene, Oregon, on June 9-12.
Only two meets remain for A&M athletes to secure a mark that ranks among the top 48 of their respective events amid West region schools. Aggies scheduled to compete in Austin who are currently on the borderline of qualifying for the NCAA preliminary rounds include: Deidre Tarver (hammer).
For now the Aggies have 44 athletes among the qualifying numbers for the preliminary rounds. In addition to all four relays qualified, the A&M women have 21 athletes for 38 positions while the men total 23 athletes for 34 positions. Those position numbers will trim down slightly once the Aggie coaching staff decides who is competing in which events for the NCAA Championships.
NCAA WEST PRELIMINARY ROUND - CURRENT TEXAS A&M QUALIFIERS
(Rankings in West region with best mark of outdoor season)
Men
100: 2. Curtis Mitchell, 10.50.
200: 1. Curtis Mitchell, 20.54; 6. Gerald Phiri, 20.91; 9. Tran Howell, 20.99; =16. Tabarie Henry, 21.10; =24. Demetrius Pinder, 21.18.
400: 3. Kyle Dykhuizen, 47.49.
800: 12. Joey Roberts, 1:49.54; 14. Oscar Ramirez, 1:49.55; 49. Sam Mutschler, 1:50.92.
5000: 46. Kevin Burnett, 14:08.06.
110H: =28. Melvin Echard, 14.19.
400H: =49. Seth Mabry, 52.67.
4x1: 1. Texas A&M, 39.08.
4x4: 1. Texas A&M, 3:01.55.
HJ: =48. Cameron Alexander, 6-8.75 (2.05).
PV: =29. Brett Bennett, 16-8.75 (5.10); =51. Colton Sandman, 16-4.75 (5.00).
LJ: 3. Trinity Otto, 24-2.25 (7.37).
TJ: 1. Zuheir Sharif, 54-3.25 (16.54); 4. Tyron Stewart, 53-6.5 (16.32); 7. Melvin Echard, 51-9.75 (15.79).
SP: =48. Nick Cook, 54-4.75 (16.58).
JT: 1. Sam Humphreys, 251-8 (76.71); 26. Jon Gomez, 214-1 (65.25).
Dec: 5. Trinity Otto, 7542 (top 24 compete in Eugene).
Women
100: 2. Porscha Lucas, 11.46; =25. Ashika Charan, 11.86.
200: 5. Ashika Charan, 24.12.
400: 1. Jessica Beard, 51.64; 17. Andrea Sutherland, 53.72.
10,000: 30. Christina Munoz, 35:03.91; 31. Katherine Devlin, 35:05.17.
100H: 1. Donique' Flemings, 13.33.
400H: 2. Donique' Flemings, 59.47; 51. Courtnie Allen, 61.42.
4x1: 1. Texas A&M, 42.56.
4x4: 3. Texas A&M, 3:32.86.
HJ: =21. Daphne Fitzpatrick, 5-8.75 (1.75).
PV: =31. Laura Asimakis, 12-11.75 (3.96).
LJ: 17. Ashika Charan, 19-11 (6.07); 43. Tiffany Peters, 19-6.75 (5.96).
TJ: =5. Ashika Charan, (42-6 (12.95); 10. Sasha-Kay Matthias, 42-5.5 (12.94).
SP: 30. Taylor Rosser, 48-11 (14.91).
HT: 46. Deidre Tarver, 176-10 (53.91).
JT: 9. Hillary Pustka, 160-9 (49.00).
Hept: 3. Daphne Fitzpatrick, 5395 (top 24 compete in Eugene).