Texas A&M
NCAA Outdoor Championships
No. 1 TEXAS A&M SWEEPS NCAA OUTDOOR TITLES ONCE AGAIN
Jun 12, 2010 | Track and Field
June 12, 2010
Complete Results |
Photo Gallery 
EUGENE, OREGON - Texas A&M won another pair of national championships in track and field, repeating the feat they accomplished last year. While the Aggie women locked up their title prior to the 4 x 400 relay, the A&M men needed another miracle in the last track race to pull off the team victory.
Texas A&M women amassed 72 points, winning the meet by 15 points over runner-up Oregon's 57. The Aggies scored the most points at a NCAA meet since South Carolina's 82 in 2002. The Aggie men scored 55, just one point ahead of the Florida Gators, who had 54 while Oregon finished third with 45.
It became another chapter for historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.
"Our program is where we want it to be right now," Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said. "Next year we hope we have another season where we are in the mix.
"We could have been second or third here today, I wouldn't have been extremely pleased with that. As long as we are in this top group that's really important for us in the development of our program."
It marks the second time one school has claimed consecutive men's and women's team titles. Pat Henry coached the LSU squads that accomplished the same double-double titles in 1989-1990, and repeated the endeavor 20 years later with Texas A&M.
"This is a pretty special group," Henry noted. "They didn't stop or quit until the whole thing was over. That's how you get it done at this kind of meet."
Last season the Aggies were dual champions at Arkansas, which is called the "Track Capital of the World". Now they have another pair of national championship trophies from Eugene, which is labeled "Tracktown USA."
The final day crowd of 12,812 is the largest in 26 years for an NCAA Saturday, while the four-day total of 45,847 established a meet record. The fans were witness to a thrilling final day to the 2010 national championship.
Starting with a 42.82 4 x 100 victory, the Aggie women kept churning out the points in just about every event they contested on the final day of the meet. They totaled 46 on the day with the bulk of them, 22 to be exact, coming in the 200 meters.
The sprint relay victory was the fourth consecutive for A&M with Porscha Lucas running second leg on each one. She is the first female sprinter in NCAA history to run on four consecutive 4 x 100 relay championship teams. LSU had four sprinters compete on three consecutive winning relays teams - Cheryl Taplin, D'Andre Hill, Zundra Feagin and Kwajalein Butler.
Texas A&M is undefeated in the sprint relay during postseason races over the past four years, which includes 19 races and 11 finals. Their winning streak including regular season meets, which goes back to 2008, now stands at 29 races with 21 finals.
The Aggies four-year average of winning times from 2007 to now is a very impressive 42.71. The only other team to win four or more consecutive relays is LSU. The Tigers top four-year winning average was a 43.14 from 1994-1997. They also have a 43.22 average from 1992-1995 and 1993-1996.
Jeneba Tarmoh, Dominique Duncan and Jessica Beard joined Lucas on the winning relay. It was the first time for Beard to run on the sprint relay in a postseason meet and she fared quite well in getting the Aggies to the finish line first. LSU placed second in 43.72 and Oregon finished third in 43.74.
"I just knew my teammates were going to set me up," Beard said. "The outcome was victorious, but still bittersweet for me since I wanted to win the 400 the day before."
Lucas later successfully defended her NCAA title in the 200 in 22.83 with teammates Simone Facey won in 2008.
"I was really excited after the 4 x 100, so I had to calm down and get ready for the 200," Lucas said. "It was tough, but manageable. We kind of look at the 4 x 100 as a warm-up race for the 200.
In defending her 200 title, Lucas is the first repeat winner in the women's NCAA 200, in back-to-back years, since Juliet Cuthbert of Texas in 1985 and 1986. Sevatheda Fynes won a pair of titles in 1995 for Eastern Michigan and again in 1997 for Michigan State.
"To win the 4 x 100 for the fourth consecutive year, a 200 title for a second time and then to add a second place in the 100, I feel so blessed right now," stated Lucas. "I couldn't be happier with how I ended the meet and we were able to win another team championship."
Duncan added: "Being in lane eight I had everyone chasing me, so that was a little nerve-racking. I knew my points were going to be a bonus and would help since we didn't have Gabby."
Hillary Pustka (163-9) and Vashti Thomas (13.09) supplied sixth-place points in the javelin and 100 hurdles, respectively. Thomas just missed scoring in the long jump as she placed ninth (20-4.5).
The combined four points from Pustka and Thomas locked up the women's title for Texas A&M. The Aggies total with two finals remaining was 64 with Oregon well back at 42.
The Aggie women capped their day with a school record in the 4 x 400 relay, clocking 3:28.57 to finish second, by just 0.03 of a second, behind Oregon's 3:28.54. They bettered a school record of 3:29.44 that was set at the NCAA meet in 2006.
"We set a school record and won the team championship, so I don't think I could ask for anything more," Beard stated. "I'm so excited and grateful that we came in here and beat all the odds. We were predicted to win by one point, and we scored way more points that we were suppose to."
A&M ran with the foursome of Tarmoh (52.8), Ashika Charan (52.2), Donique' Flemings (53.07) and Jessica Beard (50.42), who also anchored the 4 x 100 relay earlier in the day.
"I'm so happy," said Gabby Mayo, who missed participating in the meet due to an injury. "Everybody stepped up and did what they were suppose to do. I'm so happy and I'm definitely going to be in it next year. I have some great teammates and I love this school."
It was a rollercoaster ride the A&M men once again. After the men's 4 x 100 was disqualified a year ago for passing out to the last exchange zone, this time the first pass was never completed. Florida won the race in 39.04 while two other teams - UCLA and Kentucky - joined the Aggies in not finishing the race.
"I hope we don't qualify in the men's 4 x 100 next year, so I don't have to worry about," joked Henry. "Our most consistent exchange we've had this season is from Chris Dykes and Justin Oliver and they passed out of the zone. So, who can guess what's going on there.
"It was something we had to overcome. We look at each one of our events as a task. You have to take care of that task and forget about the last one. When one's over, it's over. Then you have to look forward to the next one."
Howell attempted to get the baton to Phiri a couple of times and then they ran out of real estate as they left the exchange zone without passing the baton.
"The 4x1 was very disappointing," Phiri said. "I felt the baton closer to my wrist, so when I closed my hand I couldn't grab the baton since it wasn't in my palm. I tried to kind of scoop it, but that didn't work. It was heartbreaking."
Then Curtis Mitchell was defeated for the first time this season in the 200 while Gerald Phiri finished eighth in the race. Mitchell ran 20.45 behind a wind-aided 20.36 by Kentucky's Rondel Sorrillo. Phiri ran 20.91 in picking up a point.
"I knew that wasn't going to be my best race because I didn't get to run my leg of the 4 x 100 and I couldn't open up," noted Mitchell. "Sorrillo ran the 4 x 100, so he was able to open up. That was like me running a prelim round.
"On a good say I could have done way better than that. I'm just happy to come out with second place. There are no excuses, though, Sorrillo was the better man on this day."
Meanwhile, neither Melvin Echard (24-7.75) nor Julian Reid (24-7) advanced to the final of the long jump, placing 13th and 15th. In the shot put Florida's Kemal Mesic placed fourth for five Gator points.
Oregon made one last push for the team title by sweeping the top three places in the men's 1,500, and they generated an additional point from the 5,000 with an eighth-place finish.
So, going into the 4 x 400 relay the Aggies were tied with Oregon with 45 points with Florida sitting in third with 43.
After finishing second three years in a row in the 4 x 400, the Aggies won the relay in 3:00.89 to set a school record. They just clipped the 3:00.91 recorded in last year's national meet as well as the 1989 NCAAs.
Meanwhile, Florida placed third in 3:01.87 behind Mississippi State's 3:01.66. A&M ran with the crew of Curtis Mitchell (45.07) and Tabarie Henry (44.79).
"I had my doubts," Tabarie Henry noted. "In my head I was doing calculations that they still had someone in the shot put and long jump still and we messed up on the 4x1. All we had left was the 4x4 and our jumpers didn't make the final.
"In my mind I thought let's just go win this 4x4 for the team, not knowing we were still in the hunt. Then Coach Henry told us before the race to go out and win it, if we do then we have a shot to win the team title."
That made the scoring line Texas A&M 55, Florida 49, and Oregon 45. The Gators still had Christian Taylor, the triple jump champion, in the long jump.
Taylor opened the long jump with a pair of fouls, then reached 24-11.25 in the third round to advanced to the final. He improved to 25-6 in round four, which ended up earning Florida five points with a fourth-place finish. Taylor was just six inches away from placing third.
So, A&M's total of 55 remained better than the Gator's new tally of 54 points and another national champion was secured.
"That was a track meet," Henry said. "I wish the long jump had been over a bit earlier so we would have known a little bit more about the team score going into the final relay."
Players Mentioned
