Feb. 5, 2011
NEW YORK CITY - NEW BALANCE COLLEGIATE INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORES Men: 1. LSU 97; 2. Texas A&M 80; 3. Duke 58; 4. Arkansas 52; 5. BYU 43; 6. Tennessee 39; 7. Texas 33; 8. Columbia 30; 9. Houston 28; 10. Baylor 27.
Women: 1. BYU 90.5; 2. LSU 85; 3. Texas A&M 80; 4. Arkansas 49; 5. Connecticut 46.5; 6. Duke 41; 7. Baylor 40; 8. Ohio State 38.5; 9. Kansas 38; 10. Tennessee 30.
Successful title defenses from Jessica Beard and Jeneba Tarmoh fueled the Aggies effort during the second day of the New Balance Collegiate Invitational held in the Armory.
Texas A&M scored 80 points apiece in the men's and women's team scoring to place second and third respectively in the meet after winning both team titles a year ago.
The Aggies capped the evening with a pair of 4 x 400 relay victories as the A&M women blistered a meet record of 3:30.70 while the men worked for a 3:08.99 victory. In addition the Aggies also secured a pair of school records in the 4 x 800 relays.
"We come to this meet so that we can start to teach the team how meets like this compare to our conference meet," noted A&M head coach Pat Henry. "It's not always about the winning individual or relay that wins the team competition. Some teams are going to pile up points through seconds, thirds, and fourths. Those points are just important to for a team to win this type of meet.
"Our goals this weekend was to put people in positions to find out where we need to be in a couple of weeks. We're always a team, and we want to try to win this meet like we did last year. But we got beat by some people today that came in here with a better team on this day. BYU did a heck of a job and so did LSU."
Beard earned an outstanding performer honor for her efforts on the track while Mason Finley of Kansas was selected for the outstanding performer honor in field events.
"It's an amazing honor, I just feel so blessed," Beard said of receiving the award. "Everything that has been working in practice, with my training partners, is all coming together. I'm just happy that I can contribute to the team.
"I always enjoy New York, and not just outside around the city, but inside the Armory and the atmosphere it creates. The crowd here reminds me of being in Eugene for an outdoor meet. Everybody cheers for everybody here whether they know you or not."
In defending her 400-meter title Beard produced a winning time of 52.25 seconds, the current collegiate leading time for 2011 and is currently third fastest in the world. Beard also remains the world leader in the 200 with a 22.95 from a couple of weeks ago.
Beard has won the 400 at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational three of the past four years. In her freshman season she claimed the title in 53.02 and then won the 2010 title in 52.66. Texas A&M totaled 12 points in the 400 as Ibukun Mayungbe placed seventh with a time of 54.81.
"I was just happy that each year I've run better than the previous year," Beard noted. "I knew I had something better than the 52.9 I opened up with this season."
Taking command of the 400 in the first lap, Beard cruised to her victory without much of a challenge from the field in her section. Columbia's Sharay Hale ran 53.75 for second place while LSU's Cassandra Tate finished third in 53.91.
Tarmoh defended her title in the 200 with a meet record of 22.98, matching her indoor career best in the event. Tarmoh's time broke the meet record of 23.06 set by LSU's Muna Lee in 2004.
Powering through her 200 in lane four, Tarmoh put some distance between herself and runner-up Candyce McGrone of Oklahoma, who posted a 23.31, and LSU's Kimberlyn Duncan, who placed third in 23.43. Tarmoh also ran 22.98 during the Texas A&M vs. LSU dual meet a couple of weeks ago.
"I wasn't even really thinking about defending a title this weekend," Tarmoh said. "Instead I was thinking about executing my running, doing exactly what coach taught me, and my mental preparation.
"This meet is actually a preparation for the national meet since we run the 60 back-to-back and have the 200 twice in the same day along with the 4 x 400. That's what was pretty much on my mind, getting through the day."
Prezel Hardy, Jr. posted a 21.67 for third in his section and eighth overall.
"Horatio and I are pretty good friends, so it's always good to race him," Phiri said. "My tradition has always been to run the 60 meters in New York. This year I've been running good 200s and Coach Henry wanted to use today as an opportunity for me to run back-to-back 200s on the same day.
"When we are in the national championships I'll be expected to run a fast 200 and then come back an hour later and do it again. Today was good preparation and I feel confident now going into the national championships."
The Aggie men tallied 16 points in the event and at that time moved into the team lead with 54 points, 10 ahead of LSU's 44 with Duke in third at 39.
Texas A&M women accumulated 17 points in the 200 as Dominique Duncan placed fourth with a career best 23.52 and Gabby Mayo claimed seventh in 23.92. Just missing on a scoring place was Ashley Collier, who posted a 24.01.
At that stage of the meet the Aggie women were trailing LSU 50 to 48 with BYU third at 45.
Tarmoh and Beard teamed up for the opening and closing legs of the 4 x 400. Tarmoh split 53.2 and had A&M in the lead when she handed the baton off to Andrea Sutherland.
The Aggies were even with Arkansas on the next exchange after Sutherland split 53.1. Mayungbe also churned out a 53.1 split as she moved from second to first and gave Beard a 5-meter cushion.
Beard, who often has to chase down an opposing anchor leg, increased the Aggie advantage to 25 meters as she split 51.1. Texas A&M bettered the previous meet record of 3:30.95 set by South Carolina in 2007. Arkansas placed second in 3:34.70.
"I'm pretty sure we were all pretty tired coming into the relay," noted Tarmoh. "It was my fifth race of the weekend. Andrea had already run the 500 while Jessica and Ibukun each had two races in the 400."
The Aggie women just missed the NCAA automatic standard by 0.05 last week when they posted a 3:34.05, but bettered the mark by three seconds in New York City.
"I feel like everybody stepped up today even though they already had another races on their legs earlier in the meet," Beard said. "We had so much heart and courage. To be a second away from the school record while setting the meet record here is quite an achievement by this group at this time of the season.
"I don't mind running from the back and chasing somebody down. But to see the effort everybody else put into the relay and step up made me step my game up. It was nice to see the freshman (Mayungbe) hand off the baton in front. I couldn't be happier than I was today with everybody."
On the men's 4 x 400 the crew consisted of Demetrius Pinder, Bryan Miller, Tran Howell and Tabarie Henry. They led each of the first two exchanges with Baylor on their shoulder.
When Howell ran the third Arkansas passed Baylor and began to challenge the Aggies. Henry led the whole way on the anchor leg with the Razorbacks closing the gap near the finish. Texas A&M, the collegiate leader with a 3:05.99, won in 3:08.99 as Arkansas ran 3:09.08 for second.
In other relay action the Aggie men powered their way to a school record of 7:27.26 as they bettered the field by four full seconds. Texas A&M, who established a school record of 7:29.57 at this meet last season, ran with a squad of Sam Mutschler, Joey Roberts, Oscar Ramirez and Michael Preble.
Mutschler led the field until the exchange where the Aggies trailed BYU. Roberts soon put A&M back in front and he began to build a lead of 10 meters and it stretched to 15 meters at the next exchange.
Baylor became the main challenger on the third leg, but Ramirez was busy increasing the Aggie advantage to 25 meters. Baylor gave way to Columbia during the anchor leg, but no one was going to catch Preble, who split 1:51.4 and maintained A&M's healthy lead.
"It was a good race and fun," Preble said. "It was great for the team to set it up like they did. They put me in a great position. We were in first by 20 meters so I just had to bring it home. Being able to run at a meet like this and finish just a second off the meet record was special."
The Aggie men are the current U.S. and collegiate leaders in the 4 x 800, supplanting Notre Dame's time of 7:32.81.
The women's 4 x 800 squad broke the school record in placing second with an 8:58.79 as BYU claimed the race in 8:53.02. The Aggies ran a crew of Erica Parker, Aliese Hyde, Taylor Buckner and Hillary Hagan.
Texas A&M led early on the opening leg with Parker and were second to BYU on the first exchange. During the second leg the Aggies fell back to third behind BYU and Cincinnati until a strong finish by Hyde pushed A&M into the lead for the third exchange.
Buckner led the field for a couple of laps before BYU regained the lead for good. Hagan also dropped back to third on her anchor lap, but a strong close enabled her to move back into second as she passed Columbia (8:59.05) in the final strides.
"It was a really good experience, especially as a senior with three other freshman," noted Parker. "I just really enjoyed having a 4 x 800 team and I think everyone showed a lot of heart in this effort. The each ran their best and gave a little more effort on the lap leading into the exchange.
"This is the one shot we had in this race indoors. We are so thankful that we broke the school record and did as well as we did."
A third place finisher in the Championship high jump Cameron Alexander equaled his personal best as he cleared 6-11 ¼ (2.11). Tyler Lee did not clear a bar in the event.
Kevin Burnett faced a Championship field in the 3,000 meters and fared very well with a fifth-place effort. Burnett turned in a time of 8:13.93.
In morning races, C.J. Brown clocked 8:48.66 in the event.
MacLean O'Donnell also placed ninth after finishing third in his section with a 4:14.25. Ethan Doherty clocked 4:17.93 in another section. In the college 800 Hillary Hagan ran 2:19.04.
Melvin Echard finished 13th in the triple jump with a mark of 44-6 ¼ (13.57).
Jennifer Edwards had a solid effort in the weight throw with a toss of 53-2 ¼ (16.21) that placed 18th in a field of 40 entrants.