Texas A&M
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Aggies score 46 more points on third day of NCAA Championships
Jun 11, 2010 | Track and Field
June 11, 2010
EUGENE, OREGON - As the sun showered the University of Oregon campus with its warmest outing since the meet started a couple of days ago, No. 1 Texas A&M sprinted to major points in the 60-degree weather.
A total of 46 points were scored by the Aggies on Friday. With one day remaining A&M is set to defend the dual NCAA titles they won a year ago.
"Our ladies have lined up and scored," Texas A&M coach Curtis Mitchell to be in the final."
Now the Aggies reach the climatic day with the following events - 4 x 100 relay, 200 meters, 100 hurdles, long jump, javelin and 4 x 400 relay - available for more point production.
"We have some events that might be good for us on Saturday," Henry noted.
The third day crowd totaled 11,972 fans at Hayward Field and they cheered on favorite son Ashton Eaton as he won a third consecutive decathlon national title. However, in the same event Trinity Otto upset the formcharts and earned A&M six points towards the team title.
"Trinity just put one together today," stated Henry. "He looked like the athlete we thought he was all along. He did a great job and those points are critical right now."
Another 18 points added by the Aggie men in the 100 meters (14) and 400 meters (4) produced a 24-point day. Now Texas A&M leads the men's field with 36 points over Florida's 28. Southern California is third with 26.5. There is a three-way tie for fourth with Oregon, LSU and Arizona State each with 20 points.
Aggie women generated 22 points in two events as Porscha Lucas and Jeneba Tarmoh went 2-3 in the 100 meters for 14 points. Jessica Beard repeated her NCAA runner-up finish from last season to add eight more points.
Through 13 finals, with eight remaining tomorrow, Oregon leads the women's field with 30 points. Iowa State is second with 28 and Texas A&M has 26 points in third place tied with Southern Illinois. Arizona is fifth with 19 points.
After a personal best day one score, Otto maintain second place through eight events in the decathlon. He opened the second day of the multi with a 15.04 in the 110 hurdles, then Otto threw 131-8 in the discus. A clearance of 14-9 in the pole vault had Otto in second with 6,526 points.
Needing a big effort in the javelin to assist Otto in the grueling final event of 1,500 meters, things didn't start well. A first round toss of 137-7 was followed by a 122-11. With one throw remaining Otto launched a 166-7 toss for 600 more points.
"Warm-ups for the javelin went well," Otto said. "Then on my first throw was bad. I tried to hard on the second and it was horrible. Before my third throw Coach Juan De La Garza said this is it, I have to go for it."
Heading into the 1,500 with 7,156 points Otto was in third place. A personal best time of 4:53.43 kept Otto in third place with a career best score of 7,724. That tally keeps Otto as the No. 2 performer all-time at Texas A&M with the No. 8 performance.
"Coach Henry saw me early this morning and just said team," Otto said. "The whole day I just thought this is for the team. I knew I wasn't predicted to get any points.
"Going into the 1,500 I knew my position and I had to keep Lars Rise of Missouri in my sights. The whole time I kept thinking I can't let him get away from me. No matter how much it hurt I was going to run it."
Last season Otto finished seventh in Fayetteville to earn two points, the margin the Aggies won the team title by.
"I'm happy how it turned out and I was able to contribute to the team score more than last year," Otto added. "I knew if I was near by PRs I would be ok on the second day. It was kind of hit or miss on the final day."
Lucas and Tarmoh ran times of 11.12 and 11.13 with an aiding wind of 2.8 as they claimed 14 points behind the 10.98 recorded by winner Blessing Okagbare of UTEP.
"My goal was to come out here and finish better than I did last year and I achieved that goal," said Lucas, who placed fourth a year ago. "I was in my own zone during the race. I figured Jeneba and I would finish somewhere in that order. We've been running that close to one another the whole year."
Tarmoh added: "Tomorrow is going to be a great day. We get to run with our girls again on the 4 x 100 relay and Porscha and I will be together in the 200 with Dominique Duncan as well. Everything is going really well for us."
Beard battled Hampton's Francena McCorory for the lead in the 400 as the field came into the homestretch. McCorory was able to pull away in the final stages for a 50.69 victory as Beard repeated a runner-up finish with a 51.02. Last year's winner, Joanna Atkins of Auburn, placed third in 52.01 while Oregon's Keshia Baker finished fourth in 52.34.
The men's 100 produced eighth points for the Aggies as Curtis Mitchell placed sixth in 10.23. They were predicted to score six points in the Track & Field News formchart. Florida's Jeff Demps won the race in 9.96 to earn the 10 points he was predicted to claim, but the Gators lost a predicted point when Terrell Wilks didn't make the final.
Demetrius Pinder ran 45.56 for sixth in the men's 400 final as Tabarie Henry clocked 45.92 for eighth. The two Aggie sprinters started from lanes 1 and 2. Alabama's Kirani James won the race in 45.03 while Florida's Calvin Smith placed fourth in 45.37.
"Our quartermilers drew the inside lanes because of their performance in the semifinal," Henry noted. "The races dictate the lanes. So, sometimes it's tough. When you get lanes 1 and 2 in this race you're at a deficit right away. Both ran very well and I'm pleased to get what we did out of the men's 400."
Players Mentioned
