Texas A&M
NCAA West Region
Aggies advance 14 more athletes to Eugene, now total 21
May 28, 2010 | Track and Field
May 28, 2010
AUSTIN - Over the course of one hour on a hot Friday afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium, the Texas A&M Aggies advanced 10 sprinters to the semifinals of their respective events that will be held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Later in the meet, two A&M 400 hurdlers booked a trip to the semifinals as the 11th and 12th qualifiers on time. A&M also had two women long jumpers advance to the NCAA Championships.
Through two days of action at the NCAA West preliminary rounds the current total for the Aggies is 21 athletes (12 women, 9 men) who will be competing at the University of Oregon from June 9-12.
"It was a go to work day," noted Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "You come in here and you have certain tasks to take care of.
"The 100-meter people, I was extremely pleased with the effort. The times were very good. It's a hot, humid and heavy day, but they still ran very well. I can't be anything but pleased with our sprinters."
Highlights included Curtis Mitchell (20.27) clocking the second fastest time by an Aggie in the 200 and Vashti Thomas (21-2) equaling the second best long jump in school history.
With the 100 hurdles opening the running events on Friday, A&M endured some bad luck when Natasha Ruddock twisted her left knee during a warm-up session and was unable to start in the first heat of the 100 hurdles.
"We had one athlete get hurt today, and that always puts a damper on anything you do," Henry said. "Natasha is running so fast right now. There is a reason for everything, but I don't know what that reason is yet. She knows that and she will deal with it."
De'Lon Isom finished fourth in his heat with a time of 14.32 and advanced on time to the quarterfinals.
"This is why we need automatic selections for the outdoor nationals," Mayo said of Ruddock's unfortunate injury. "We're going to try to pull together for her, like they did for me at the Big 12 Championships. We will try our best."
For the next hour on the track, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., the Aggies displayed their sprint prowess in sending 10 athletes onto the semifinals of the 400 and 100 meters.
Three qualified in the men's 400, led by another career best run from Demetrius Pinder. Joining the sub-45 second club, Pinder posted a 44.93 to lead the field of 24 runners. He is currently the third fastest collegian this season, behind a 44.81 by Calvin Smith of Florida and a 44.86 by Tavaris Tate of Mississippi State.
"I work hard every day for something like this and I try to be the best all the time," said Pinder, who was injured during the 4 x 200 final at Penn Relays in April. "When I was injured it was taking a toll on my mind. But I remained strong and believed in God and my coaches.
"I was keeping my cardio up with water workouts. I was doing that to my full advantage, trying to get all I could out of it as if I wasn't hurt. So I put the work in and now it's paying off."
On the current world list for 2010, Pinder is ranked fifth and is the top runner from the Caribbean and his native country of Bahamas.
Pinder moves to No. 4 performer with the No. 4 performance on the A&M all-time list, trailing Curtis Mills (44.67c), Danny McCray (44.81) and Leslie Kerr (44.90). In moving to fourth on the list, Pinder passed by Justin Oliver (45.34).
Tabarie Henry, Bryan Miller and Tran Howell all ran in the third and final heat of the 400. Henry (45.30) and Miller (46.09) advanced to Eugene by placing second and third. Howell (47.05) finished sixth.
Jessica Beard repeated her effort from Thursday dominating the women's 400 field and posting a 51.35 heat winning time. Runner-up to Beard in the heat was Stacey-Ann Smith of Texas in 52.83. Oregon's Keshia Baker, the current collegiate outdoor leader at 50.74, had the second best time in the quarterfinal with a 51.60.
Moving on to the 100 meters the A&M men had a pair of heat winners in Curtis Mitchell and Gerald Phiri. Mitchell claimed heat one with a personal best of 10.26 while Phiri clocked 10.17 to win heat three. Mitchell moves to No. 11 on the Aggie all-time list.
"A lot of things were going wrong for me in this event, I was trying to find my identity," noted Mitchell. "I know I can run, but you can't make mistakes in these type of races.
"Coach Henry has been telling me to stay patient. Today I didn't worry about anybody else in my race. I figured this is the quarterfinals, what do I have to lose. I've been doing it my way all year long, and it hasn't been working for me. So I tried my coaches way and it worked out."
Four sprinters advanced to Eugene from the women's 100. Porscha Lucas led the field with an 11.18 and was followed by an 11.20 from Jeneba Tarmoh in the same heat. Gabby Mayo (11.41) and Dominique Duncan (11.53) went 2-3 in the first heat.
The time by Lucas, who has a career best of 11.12, equals the 10th best performance on the A&M all-time list.
"I'm really blessed and happy that I was able to overcome my injury," Lucas stated. "It's my senior season so I really want to go out with a bang. Running on this track means a lot. I won State here in the 200 during my senior year in high school. Now in my senior year in college I come out with the fastest time in the 100.
"Having Jeneba next to me helped push me more and also helped calm me down. I love racing against my own teammate."
Tarmoh added: "I'm happy that I ran next to Porscha. I tend to get nervous when I run, so when I'm in a race with any of my teammates it calms me down a lot more."
In the 400 hurdles Donique' Flemings and Andrea Sutherland placed fourth and fifth in the same heat and qualified for the semifinals in Eugene as time qualifiers, taking the 11th and 12th positions.
Flemings recorded a personal best of 58.10, lowering her previous best of 58.66. She moves to No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list.
The evening ended with Ashika Charan qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the long jump. An early leap of 21-2 (6.45) in the second round secured a trip for Thomas while Charan produced a mark of 20-5.25 (6.23) in the fourth round to claim the 11th position.
Thomas equals the second best performance ever at Texas A&M, tying a mark also held by Alisa Bell (1988) and only trails the Aggie school record of 21-5.25 set by Adrien Sawyer in 1997.
FIRST ROUND QUALIFYING RACES
In addition to the 110/100 hurdles, first round action also included the 200 meters on the second day of the NCAA West preliminary rounds.
The Aggies advanced all five sprinters in the 200 to Saturday's quarterfinals.
Curtis Mitchell ran in the first heat and exploded to a 20.27 collegiate leading time. On the current 2010 world list Mitchell is ranked fifth and is the third fastest American.
Runner-up to Mitchell in that heat was TCU's Mark Barnes in 21.03. Gerald Phiri finished second to OU's Mookie Salaam (20.41) with a 20.77.
On the A&M all time list Mitchell moved to No. 2 performer and equal to the No. 6 performance. He only trails Floyd Heard, who holds the school record of 19.95 and also produced performances of 20.03, 20.12, 20.25 and a 20.27. Mitchell moved ahead of Stanley Kerr's 20.28.
In the women's 200 Porscha Lucas led the field with the only sub-23 second time as she won her heat in 22.98. Jeneba Tarmoh posted the second fastest time as a 23.00 heat winner. Another Aggie heat winner was Dominique Duncan in a career best of 23.31 that moves her to No. 8 on the all time A&M list.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS - Eugene, Oregon
Aggies who have qualified for the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.
MEN (9 athletes)
100: Curtis Mitchell
400: Demetrius Pinder, Tabarie Henry, Bryan Miller
Long Jump: Melvin Echard, Julian Reid.
Javelin: Sam Humphreys.
Decathlon: Trinity Otto.
WOMEN (12 athletes)
100: Porscha Lucas, Jeneba Tarmoh, Gabby Mayo, Dominique Duncan
400: Jessica Beard
400H: Donique' Flemings.
Long Jump: Ashika Charan.
Javelin: Hillary Pustka.
Heptathlon: Daphne Fitzpatrick.
