Jan. 29, 2011
COLLEGE STATION - A world-leading time for Tabarie Henry in the 400 meters highlighted the Aggies day during the Texas A&M Challenge, presented by Mondo America, at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on Saturday.
The Big 12 swept the SEC in the team scoring. The grouping of Texas A&M, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech produced a men's tally of 363 to 312 for the SEC crew of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. On the women's side the Big 12 enjoyed a bigger cushion, winning with a 441.5 to 257.5 margin over the SEC.
"Any time you have eight great universities like this in one place, and they get after it, you're going to have good things happen across the board," Texas A&M coach Pat Henry said. "While there were a couple of events that weren't national caliber, for the most part this was a big time meet.
"With our sprint group I'm real pleased where we are. The performances are good, but more importantly we are healthy at this time of the year. Our half-milers continue to get a little bit better and we ran some distance kids in off events this weekend."
In addition to Henry's victory in the 400, Jessica Beard won her third consecutive 200 and Andrea Sutherland claimed the 600 yards. Then the Aggies closed out the meet, in front of 1,943 fans, with a pair of wins in the 4 x 400 relays. Friday's attendance at the Challenge meet totaled 1,005.
Texas A&M also produced six stellar runner-up efforts. Wayne Davis II lowered his career best in the 60 hurdles. Jeneba Tarmoh challenged the 2009 NCAA champion in the 60 meters and Bryan Miller set a personal best in the 200. The brother-sister combo of Brett Parker and Erica Parker were each second in the 600 yards and 800 meters, respectively.
On the whole the Texas A&M Challenge included 13 meet records, four of which were set by the Aggies.
Henry ran his first open 400 of the indoor season and produced a winning time of 46.33 seconds. It topped the previous world leading mark for the 2011 season of 46.77 set by Baylor's Marcus Boyd on the Gilliam track back on Jan. 15.
"We had a strategy this week to hit the first 200 hard," noted Tabarie. "It felt good to compete again in the 400. After having some hamstring issues it was refreshing to go out there and feel healthy."
With his cousin, Oklahoma's Remuro Henry, one lane to his right Tabarie established an early lead on the first lap of the race and had command over the field before reaching the 200-meter mark.
"We've been competing since high school and junior college," Tabarie said of his cousin. "That was one of my training buddies, so it felt good to get him to a PR today. I'm glad I was able to motivate my cousin like that."
Henry, holder of the meet record with a 45.81, cruised to the finish with South Carolina's Clayton Gravesande runner-up in 47.65 while Remuro finished third at 47.77. Another Aggie in the field, frosh Carlyle Roudette, ran 47.88 to place fourth.
Jessica Beard won her third consecutive 200 race this season and set her second consecutive meet record with a winning time of 23.18. Beard held the previous meet record of 23.34, which she set last year.
"I was going out to run close to what I ran last week," Beard explained. "I was aggressive early in the race, through the first 20 or 30 meters. I had another time that is better than the NCAA auto standard, so I'm pleased that I'm more consistent in the 200 with my times."
Henry and Beard each ran a leg on winning 4 x 400 efforts to cap the evening. The A&M women clocked 3:34.05, just missing the NCAA auto standard of 3:34.00, with the foursome of Ibukun Mayungbe (54.46), Andrea Sutherland (53.49), Gabby Mayo (54.70) and Beard (51.41). It's the seventh-fastest time on the Aggie all-time list and currently second in the world for 2011.
Beard made up a difference of 20 meters on the Florida anchor leg and as the Aggies won by over two seconds as the Gators were runner-up in 3:36.45.
"This was my first 4 x 400 since December," Beard said. "I couldn't wait to run it. We were trying to get the NCAA automatic time. Everybody tried their best and we attempted it without Jeneba Tarmoh running on the relay today.
"Gabby stepped up for us. Since she is still just coming back I told her we only needed a 54 from her today. I knew that would keep us in the race with a change to win. So my strategy was to be aggressive in the first 200 meters. Watching the Florida runners in the 400 I knew I was a couple of seconds faster than them, so that put me into an attack mode."
In the men's relay the A&M crew consisted of Miller (46.52), Tran Howell (46.33), Henry (46.27) and Michael Preble (46.87) as they lowered their world leading time to 3:05.99. It's the fourth-fastest effort on the Aggies all-time list.
Florida led the Aggies through the first two handoffs with the tandem of Tony McQuay (46.02) and Christian Taylor (46.01). Despite a bobble of the baton between Howell and Henry, Texas A&M moved in front of Florida's third leg, William Wynne (48.32).
Preble enjoyed a 15-meter lead on his first lap of his anchor-leg duties and improved it to 25 meters over the Gators' Jovon Toppin (48.66) as the Aggies won by three seconds over the 3:09.00 posted by Florida.
"Not running the final leg of the relay feels a little weird to me," Tabarie said. "The anchor leg is the most important leg, everybody knows who the anchor is. Now that I've given my job to Michael Preble for a while I'm kind of jealous. It's working out the best for us right now."
Prior to her strong relay carry Sutherland broke the meet record as well as the stadium record in the 600 yards. She powered through a winning time of 1:21.46 that was just shy of her career best 1:21.37 which was set at the Big 12 meet last season. Tiffany Singleton won her section of the 600 and placed third overall with a 1:23.83, which also just missed her career best of 1:23.40.
Sutherland's mark is the third-fastest performance on the Aggie all-time list. Also joining the A&M top 10 in the event were Hillary Hagan (1:24.11) and Taylor Buckner (1:24.16), who placed fourth and fifth, in positions No. 4 and No. 5 on the all-time list.
Phiri equaled his school record of 6.59 seconds as runner-up to Oklahoma's Mookie Salaam, who ran an American leading time of 6.55 for the victory. Two A&M frosh set personal best times as Prezel Hardy, Jr. clocked 6.61 and Michael Bryan posted a 6.70 as they placed third and fourth.
Hardy and Bryan, who both competed for Killeen Ellison, moved to No. 2 and No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list. Hardy also recorded the fourth-best performance all-time, trailing the pair of 6.59s and a 6.60 by Phiri.
"This is just the product of great practices with athletes getting after it every day," Hardy noted. "This is the result of that work. The coaches have been amazing with us. They have shown us a lot of love and encouragement.
"While expectations are expectations, everybody has goals. But it's up to the individual to make those goals happen. We were fortunate to come out here an rund the times that we did."
Bryan added: "After running a PR of 6.75 in the prelims I thought I could PR again in the finals. That was a pretty good feeling. I felt really good running today. It's an honor to run with these guys. They're all top-notch. "
Davis lowered his best at A&M in the 60 hurdles to 7.81 seconds. In the prelims Davis broke the meet record of 7.93 with a prelim leading 7.87. Davis is currently No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list. Texas Tech's Bryce Brown won the final, lowering the meet record to 7.81.
Miller enjoyed a personal best performance in the 200 as he won his section in 21.27 and placed second overall to a 20.76 recorded by OU's Salaam. Bryan followed in 21.52 as a section runner-up who finished seventh.
Erica Parker lowered her best in the 800 to 2:10.18 as she placed second to the winning mark of 2:07.32 by Mississippi's Sofie Persson.
"Running a PR is pretty amazing," Parker stated. "I've pretty much gone through four years of progression in three meets. It's a reflection of having a new coach and some fresh blood in our training group. Every day someone is on their `A' game, so there is no slacking in practice."
Tarmoh clocked 7.29 in the 60 meters as South Carolina's LaKya Brookins won in 7.24. Meanwhile, A&M freshman Ashley Collier placed eighth in 7.51 after running 7.49 in the prelims to take the No. 10 position on the Aggie all-time list. In the 200 Collier placed fourth with a 23.65 that ranks No. 7 on the all-time list.
"I've made a lot of improvements since my first couple of races," Collier said. "I'm excited to be running the times I am now. Getting to run in this facility each week makes it comfortable and relaxing to race here.
Brett Parker ran a 1:11.67 in the 600 yards, trailing only Ben Love of Kansas State (1:11.64) by 0.03 of a second, while another pair of Aggies, Justin Chambers (1:12.20) and Ricky Joyce (1:12.25), finished fourth and fifth.
Aly Daily became just the second Aggie female vaulter to clear 13-0 as she placed third with a best of 13-0 ¼ (3.97). Daily attempted 13-5 (4.09), trying to better the school record of 13-3 ¾ (4.06) set by Erica Boren in 2002.
"It feels so good to finally get over 13 feet," exclaimed Daily. "That's been my next height for a long time. Going for 13-5, I think I was a little too excited. I was still a little rattled from clearing 13-0. I enjoyed the opportunity to move up beyond 13 though.
"Hearing the crowd get into it pumps me up so much. It helps a lot. Now that I'm past 13 feet someone told me the sky's the limit. Being consistent over 13 will be the key thing for future improvement."
Two more A&M vaulters, Lauren Hodges and Emily Grant, cleared 11-1 ½ (3.39) as they placed eighth and ninth to tie for the No. 8 position on the all-time list.
Jennifer Edwards threw the weight an impressive 57-7 ½ (17.56) to place fourth and improve to No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list. Casey Strong produced the 10th best performance on the all-time list with a 57-11 (17.65) effort in the men's weight. In the heptathlon William Markert finished with a total of 5,084 points and is No. 11 on the A&M all-time list.
In distance racing Will Barry placed fourth in the mile with a 4:12.47 while Kevin Burnett ran 4:13.22 for seventh. In the 800 Sam Mutschler ran 1:51.76 for fifth as James Bonn posted a career best of 1:52.31 in sixth place.