Feb. 4, 2011
NEW YORK CITY - A pair of victories in the 500 meters and a runner-up finish in the women's 60 meters highlighted Texas A&M's first day at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational held in the Armory.
Aggie seniors Andrea Sutherland and Tabarie Henry each won their respective 500-meter races on Friday evening while Jeneba Tarmoh finished second in the 60.
Sutherland won the rarely contested 500 meters as she cruised to a time of 1:12.29, just shy of the meet record of 1:12.04, which was set in 2009. Finishing second to Sutherland was USC Dalilah Muhammad in 1:13.07.
Henry, meanwhile, powered through his race to clock a 1:01.28, which equals the 22nd fastest time ever run in the world. Finishing second to Henry was teammate Michael Preble, who ran in the same section and finished with a personal best of 1:02.15.
Jeneba Tarmoh recorded a career best of 7.24 in the 60-meter final to grab runner-up honors to South Carolina's LaKya Brookins, who won in 7.18. Michael Bryan advanced to the men's 60 final, placing sixth in 6.72 seconds.
Katherine Devlin had a stellar start on the day for the Aggies with a huge personal best in the 5,000 meters, where she placed third in the Championship division with a 16:24.62 clocking. The performance places Devlin among the top 10 collegians this season.
While her previous best was a 16:50.37 set in the LSU dual meet a couple of weeks ago, Devlin now becomes the second fastest A&M runner in the event, trialing the school record of 16:02.72 by Melissa Gulli in 2004. Devlin's mark is the sixth fastest ever on the Aggie all-time list behind five other marks by Gulli.
Teammate Natosha Rogers placed 10th in the race as she netted a personal best of 16:44.69. Rogers moves to No. 4 on the Aggie all-time list with the No. 12 performance.
Neely Spence of Shippensburg won the race in 16:01.09 while Morgan Haws of BYU finished second in 16:20.24.
Devlin and Rogers were stationed in sixth and seventh place through the first 2,000 meters of the race. Past the halfway points Devlin moved into second place behind Spence while Rogers moved up to fifth.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 meters Spence and Devlin moved away from the field. Devlin maintained contact with Spence for a few laps before there was a push by Spence to pull away for the victory.
The Aggie men placed fourth in the Championship division of the distance medley relay with a time of 9:52.85, which moved into the No. 10 spot on the A&M all-time list just 0.04 off the time the Aggies posted last weekend at Gilliam.
Running on the medley relay for A&M were C.J. Brown, Bryan Miller, Joey Roberts and Ethan Doherty. Tennessee and the Aggies were first and second during the course of the 800-meter third leg and in the early stages on the mile anchor.
In the middle of the anchor leg A&M was in fifth place with Tennessee in sixth. Doherty made a charge to get the Aggies into fourth place. Duke won the race in 9:46.17.
Wayne Davis II matched his personal best of 7.84 in the 60 hurdles as he placed fifth in the Championship final. Earlier in the day Davis won his heat in 7.90, the seventh fastest in qualifying.
Gabby Mayo was also a heat winner in the women's 60 hurdles, posting the top qualifying time of 8.15 seconds. Her mark equals the ninth fastest performance on the Aggie all-time list.
However, in the final Mayo clipped the first hurdle and was off balance the remainder of the race. She finished eighth in 9.80. Nia Ali of USC won the women's 60 hurdles final in 8.06, which tied the meet and collegiate facility record set by A&M's Natasha Ruddock last season.
Field events provided the Aggies with a pair of sixth-place efforts. Melvin Echard hit a mark of 24-7 ¾ (7.51) in the men's long jump while teammate Tyron Stewart placed 11th in first competition of the season, jumping 23-6 (7.16).
Lisa Steinkamp produced a 19-8 ¼ (6.00) leap for sixth place, fourth among collegians, in the women's long jump as Sasha-Kay Matthias finished 14th with a mark of 18-4 ½ (5.60). Aly Daily cleared 12-11 ½ (3.95) in the pole vault for seventh place.
James Bonn broke away from the 10 other runners in his section of the 1,000 and built a lead of 25 meters midway through the race. He led the field with a 1:55.0 split at 800 meters and then finished as the winner of the section in 2:26.02, which placed eighth overall.
That mark places Bonn No. 7 on the Aggie all-time list, where his older brother Tommy has a time less than a second faster (2:25.17) as the No. 3 mark set in 2002.
In the women's 1,000 Colbea Harris placed seventh in her section. Her time of 3:00.56 ranks No. 6 on the Aggie all-time list and is the first mark to break into the A&M top 10 since 2006.
A third Aggie in the men's 500m race was Brett Parker who finished third in his section with a 1:06.30, for 17th overall. A pair of Aggies also in the women's race included Taylor Buckner (1:15.62) and Tiffany Singleton (1:16.24), who each placed third in their sections. Overall they finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
In the women's distance medley relay A&M ran 11:41.41 for 11th with the foursome of Erica Parker, Brittany Machacek, Aliese Hyde and Haley Parsons. The time is the second fastest in school history, trailing the Aggie record of 11:38.78 established last week.
Other finals on day one of the meet included Jennifer Edwards reaching a mark of 44-3 ¼ in the shot put while multi-event athlete Daphne Fitzpatrick went 37-9 ¼ and later cleared 5-7 in the high jump. William Markert ran 8.71 in the 60 hurdles and had a shot put mark of 44-0.
QUALIFYING RACES
In prelims for Friday evening finals Tarmoh claimed a heat of the 60 in 7.32 as Dominique Duncan turned in a 7.42 as a heat runner-up. Ashley Collier finished as runner-up in another heat with a 7.52. LaKeidra Stewart ran 7.69 for fifth place in her heat.
Duncan advanced to the consolation final of the 60, placing fourth with a career best of 7.38.
In the men's 60 prelims Bryan posted a 6.72 as a heat runner-up, which served as the fourth-fastest qualifying time.
During qualifying races for Saturday finals Jessica Beard and Ibukun Mayunge were heat winners in the Championship division of the 400 meters. Beard, the meet record holder and defending champion, cruised to a 53.06 heat winner over Arkansas' Whitney Jones (54.26). Mayungbe posted a 54.74 to better her heat.
Beard led qualifying over a 53.88 from Sharay Hale of Columbia and UTEP's Endurance Ebinuwa, who ran 53.96. Mayungbe had the sixth best qualifying time.
Carlye Roudette placed fourth in his heat of the 400, running 49.00, while teammate Tim Johnson finished third in another heat with a 49.50.