May 27, 2010
AUSTIN - Texas A&M qualified five field event athletes to historic Hayward Field for the NCAA Championships from the West region preliminary rounds, which are being held at Mike A. Myers Stadium this weekend.
A&M frosh Hillary Pustka in the women's javelin along with the long jump duo of Melvin Echard and Julian Reid.
Two Aggie multi-event qualifiers, Trinity Otto and Daphne Fitzpatrick, were already locked into a NCAA Championship berth since a field of 24 in the decathlon and heptathlon will only compete on the University of Oregon campus.
Just missing out on a berth was Christina Munoz placed 17th in the race with a time of 35:10.12.
Devlin, who improved her PR from a 34:51.67, missed 12th place by five seconds. She is the No. 4 performer with the No. 6 performance.
In track even qualifying the Aggies advanced well, sending 15 athletes from six events they contested to the quarterfinal rounds in Austin the rest of this weekend.
Thursday was the first day of the three-day preliminary rounds in the West Region. Action continues on Friday with 110/100 hurdles leading off for the Aggies at 4:30 p.m.
A couple of the more impressive performances of the day belonged to Demetrius Pinder and Jessica Beard in the first round of the 400.
Pinder lowered his career best by a half-second as he cruised to a win in heat one with a 45.39, lowering his best of 45.89 set in March during the Arizona State Invitational. Pinder moves to No. 7 on the A&M all-time list with the 10th best performance.
Beard rolled to a convincing first round win as she posted a winning time of 51.25 seconds and bettered her heat by over two and a half seconds. Running in lane 3, Beard made up the stagger of the runner in lane 8 by the 200m mark.
"I was trying to run my own race," Beard noted. "Sometimes I want to go after people and catch them. Today I wanted to run my race as even as possible. I've never run an open 400 on this track, so I wanted to make sure whatever I feel it feels right."
Beard's time is the eighth-fastest performance on the Aggie all-time list, where she holds the school record of 50.56 from last year's runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships. The next best time in the event was a 52.15 from Arkansas' Shelise Williams.
Sam Humphreys threw the javelin 222-11 (67.95) to place eighth among a field of 48 entrants. He was part of the group of 12 that will advance to the next round at Hayward Field when Oregon hosts the NCAA Championships from June 9-12. A&M's Jon Gomez had a best of 174-7 (53.22) in the qualifying round.
A sluggish start had Humphreys reaching distances of 205-11 and 213-11 before a third round toss measured 222-11, his best of the day. In round four Humphreys threw 219-11 and then finished with a fifth round mark of 206-2.
"It feels good to be going back to Eugene, even though I didn't throw great today," Humphreys noted. "It's a great environment to throw in Oregon. It was hot here today and nobody was really getting any good throws. Hopefully it's better in Oregon.
"There was a bit of frustration, I wasn't hitting it right and the form wasn't coming together. But the overall goal was to get to Eugene."
Big 12 champion Humphreys, predicted for silver in the NCAA final, is one of four freshmen to advance from the West region. NCAA favorite Cyrus Hostetler of Oregon placed fifth with a 228-7.
One who didn't advance in the javelin was USC's Cooper Thompson, currently ranked No. 2 in the country, as his best of 206-11 placed 21st in Austin.
Emalie Humphreys launched a personal best in the opening round of the women's javelin. Her mark of 169-10 (51.78) placed her fourth in the competition and moves her to No. 6 on the A&M all-time list. Humphreys previous PR was 164-6 from 2008.
"My brother is just a freshman so he needs his big sister with him in Eugene," said Emalie of also advancing in the javelin. "Realizing I had that big of a throw kind of went in stages. When I went down the runway and let it go I thought that felt really good. When I walked off I thought that went really far. When I heard the mark off the tape measure I just went nuts.
"It's been a long time coming, and it feels great."
Pustka went into the final three rounds ranked ninth with a best of 158-8 (48.36) that she produced in round three. Pustka finished 12th to nab the final position that advanced to Eugene.
"This is so nice," Pustka said. "I like to keep Coach De La Garza on his toes, obviously. I always keep the suspense going until the very end. I think he's biting his nails the whole time.
"It's great that we both made it, now we have a guaranteed roommate in Eugene."
Emalie added: "Hillary and I have been throwing together for a long time, since high school. So it's great to make it, especially since Hillary is a senior and it's her last year. I know I'll have a partner out there on the runway."
Echard, who led a trio of Aggie long jumpers into the final three rounds, had an effort of 25-5.5 (7.76) to place seventh.
Julian Reid (24-6.5) joined Echard in earning a trip to Eugene by having a better second jump when he finished in a tie for the final golden ticket 12th position with Zacharias Arnos of Boise State. A back-up ump of 24-6.25 (7.47) by Ried bettered a 24-3.75 (7.41) for Arnos.
Trinity Otto (24-5.75) placed 14th while Tyron Stewart had three fouls in the competition.
"I just keep hammering away at it like Coach VanHootegem tells me," noted Echard. "Even in training I just try to execute and that's what I did today. Now I can prepare for the next two weeks and get ready for Oregon.
"Back in April the crowd in Eugene was really live and I think that is going to play into my favor. I'm excited to go back and I'm glad we traveled there earlier in the year. I already know what the runway feels like."
QUALIFYING ROUNDS
In the 400 hurdles Donique' Flemings finished third in her heat with a 59.34. Sutherland was fourth fastest in the first round of qualifying as Angele Cooper of Texas led the field with a 57.62.
Curtis Mitchell eased through the first round of the 100. Phiri ran 10.30 to win his heat while Mitchell clocked 10.33 as a runner-up in his heat.
The Aggies advanced five of six sprinters in the women's 100 as the top three finishers and the next six fastest times qualify for the quarter-finals on Friday.
Porscha Lucas claimed heat four in 11.30. Elizabeth Adeoti ran 11.95 for sixth in heat five.
The times posted by the Aggies were 2-3-5-9 from the advancing group. UTEP's Blessing Okagbare led the field with an 11.26.
Kyle Dykhuizen (47.10) placed fifth in the fifth heat.
Texas A&M advanced four of their six runners in the 400, with Pinder and Henry posting the top two times in the first round. Miller ranked 11th among the field of 24 moving on to the quarter-finals while Howell ranked 14th. Dykhuizen (27th) and Preble (30th) didn't advance.
In the men's 800 Joey Roberts ran 1:50.19 for third in his heat to automatically qualify for the next round. Oscar Ramirez finished eighth in another heat with a 1:54.01.
Quarterfinals will be held on Friday in the 100, 400, 800 and 400 hurdles meters. First round races will be contested in the 100/110 hurdles and 200 meters. Field event qualifying will include the women's long jump for the Aggies.