April 8, 2011
AUSTIN - A pair of victories capped another stellar day for the Aggies on the third day of the 84th Texas Relays. Sam Humphreys set a school record in defending his javelin title while the Texas A&M men just missed a school record in winning the sprint medley for the first time in 49 years.
Other field event highlights for the Aggies on the third day of the Texas Relays included an impressive long jump runner-up finish for Melvin Echard along with victories by Laura Asikamis and Bonnie Richardson in the B division of the pole vault and javelin.
Texas A&M also enjoyed a successful qualifying session in the morning as they advanced in both 4 x 100 relays, the women's 4 x 400 and five sprinters in the men's and women's 100 meters.
Saturday will be the showcase day for the Texas Relays and university action begins at noon. Live streaming of the meet is available for free on the www.texassports.com website.
As the Aggie men claimed a second relay title at this year's Texas Relays they won the sprint medley in 3:15.18. It was the Aggies third time to win this event at the Texas Relays, but its first since 1962. The other title came in 1943.
With a foursome of Bryan Miller, Tabarie Henry, Michael Preble and Joey Roberts, the Aggies just missed the school record of 3:15.10 set by Derrick Florence, Stanley Kerr, Errington Lindo and Matt Dunn set in 1988.
"It was great since I got to work on my speed endurance and my block start," Miller noted. "I'm glad we are more versatile this year with the number of sprinter and middle distance runners we have. It was a great race and is going to set us up for tomorrow."
In the first pair of 200s, the combo of Miller and Henry ran a split of 41.9. Then Preble clocked 45.2 on his 400 carry and gave the baton to Roberts even with Baylor.
Within the first 120 meters Roberts had bolted to the lead and then built a 15-meter lead over the field. As Baylor faded from contention the challenge came from TCU, USC and Arkansas.
Roberts split 1:48.1 as he maintained a cushion over a fast closing Duncan Phillips, who pulled the Razorbacks (3:16.83) into second place. USC (3:17.42) finished third with TCU (3:17.56) fourth and Baylor (3:18.38) fifth.
"Last year we focused on the striking distance of the runner ahead of us, but this year we were ahead," Roberts said. "I was the target and I like being the target, that is exactly my race. After the first 100 meters I knew it was over."
On his first throw of the competition Humphreys broke ended the javelin competition as he broke his own school record by an inch with a toss of 251-9. His second throw may have gone farther, but it slipped out of Humphreys grip on his delivery.
"It's a little frustrating to only increase my school record by an inch, but I'm still proud of defending my title," said Humphreys. "The second throw slipped out of my hand and I lost my grip."
The Aggie sophomore became the first person to defend a Texas Relays javelin title since Eric Brown of Arkansas in 2005-2006. The last person to win three Relays titles in the javelin was Dag Wennlund of Texas from 1985 to 1987.
Humphreys mark was the second best winning effort, behind USC's Cory White 272-2 in 2007, since 1990.
"The wind helped, especially the 20-25 miler per hour tailwind we were getting once the sun went down," noted Humphreys. "This was my first week with longer approach. On my later round throws I went back to a shorter approach to work on my plant a little more. If my plant had been there on my first throw Coach Juan De La Garza said it could have been a huge throw."
Humphreys next best throw in his series was a 243-1 (74.10) in the third round. Supplying some competition was fellow Big 12 thrower Nick Lyons of Baylor. A final round toss of 248-1 moved Lyons from third to second place over Johannes Swanepoel of Kansas (238-4), who only had one mark from the six rounds.
"It's always good to have competition, but I tend to focus on doing better myself," noted Humphreys. "But it's good to have someone nipping on my heels. That keeps me motivated to keep improving."
A very competitive long jump primarily focused on Florida State's Ngonidzashe Makusha (three time NCAA champion) and Marquis Goodwin of Texas, the 2010 NCAA Outdoor winner.
With a fifth windy round leap of 27-6.75 (8.40), Makusa secured the win. Goodwin, who led early with a second round mark of 26-5.75 (8.07), ended up in third place after a final round leap of 26-6.5 (8.09) by Aggie Melvin Echard.
"It's always sweet when you can beat a Longhorn," stated Echard. "I knew they were jumping far, since they were making it mainly a dual between Goodwin and Makusha. I focused on my technique and worked my way up to that level in my series. A steady progression is what I'm looking for."
The Myers Stadium track is a favorite of Echard, who produced his career best of 25-5.5 (7.76) at the NCAA West preliminary rounds last May and had a windy best of 26-0.25 (7.93) from the Texas Invitational in early May of last year.
"For this being my opener, to produce a jump like this is huge," noted Echard. "I can build on this for the rest of the season. It gives me confidence with the season to come. I worked on my form to produce a good jump. It was a 2.3 wind on my last round jump, but I know I can do it legally."
Teammate Tyron Stewart finished fifth in the event with a career best of 25-8.75 (7.84). His mark is No. 8 on the Aggie all-time list. Echard's mark is the fifth best wind-aided long jump on the A&M all-time list.
"I knew we were capable of jumping with those guys," Echard said. "I train with the some of the best jumpers in the country and we pushed each other during the competition."
Laura Asimakis cleared 13-3.75 (4.06) to win the B division pole vault. New Mexico's Margo Tucker and Kansas' Demi Payne matched the same height, but a first attempt clearance by Asimakis broke the tie. Tucker placed second and Payne finished third.
The A&M school record holder at 13-4.75, Asimakis grabbed her second win of the season. Teammate Aly Daily finished in a tie for seventh, clearing 12-8 (3.86). That height proved to be a bit tough for Asimakis as she needed three attempts to get past it.
Bonnie Richardson won the B division javelin with a career best throw of 147-4 (44.92) while teammate Lauren Berg finished second with a toss of 139-0 (42.37).
As the lone member of the Rochelle track team in high school, Richardson won consecutive Texas State 1A team titles in 2008 and 2009.
"My dad noted that I didn't have a home track to compete at in high school and now at Texas A&M we train on an outdoor track, but don't host meets on it," Richardson said. "The Austin track is the closest thing to a home track I've had."
Competing in the heptathlon last season for the Aggies, Richardson had a season best of 130-4 in the javelin during the Big 12 meet. This season, with Richardson focusing on the javelin, she had a season best of 136-8 in her first outdoor meet at San Diego State.
"I'm excited to do really well in something I've been working on all year," Richardson noted. "This past week we changed the run-up on my approach a little bit. I added a few more strides before my cross over starts. Clearly it helped me out."
Richardson's win in the B javelin is the third title for A&M in the past four years. Hillary Pustka of Shiner, also a 1A high school, claimed titles in 2008 and 2010.
Jennifer Edwards placed fourth in the B division shot put with a mark of 47-10.5 (14.59) while Taylor Rosser finished eighth with a put of 46-5.5 (14.16). In the B division of the discus Jill Hydrick placed sixth with a toss of 152-3 (46.41).
In the women's long jump Sasha-Kay Matthias finished ninth with a windy leap of 20-2.5 while Lisa Steinkamp placed 12th at 19-10.75 (6.05).
FRIDAY QUALIFYING
Jessica Beard impressed the morning session crowd with a 49.6-second split as the Aggies won their heat in 3:31.94 to lead qualifying. That is the fifth-fastest time in school history and lowered the collegiate leading time of 3:32.48 A&M had entering the meet.
The relay crew included Donique' Flemings (55.5) and Beard. The next best time in qualifying was a 3:33.50 by Texas with Arkansas (3:33.63), South Plains (3:36.94), Baylor (3:36.94) and TCU (3:36.95) following suit.
Just as daunting was Simone Facey (2008) and a windy 11.00 by Jeneba Tarmoh (2010).
Duncan's time is also the fastest time in the world this season, under any conditions, topping a wind-aided 11.14 by TCU's Jessica Young and an altitude aided 11.16 by Jamaica's Jura Levy.
Tarmoh won the first heat in 11.16 (5.8 wind) and qualified to the final with the fourth fastest time. Ashley Collier ran 11.34 for third in the second heat and was the 11th fastest in qualifying, but didn't make the nine-runner final.
All three Aggie sprinters in the men's 100 advanced to the final. Prezel Hardy, Jr. clocked 10.33 to snare the ninth and final qualifying position for the final.
Prior to the 100 prelims the Aggie foursome of Collier, Tarmoh, Duncan and Beard led qualifying in the 4 x 100 relay with a 43.66. Texas A&M was the only school to run a sub 44-second time. Texas was next fastest at 44.39 with LSU (44.44), USC (44.51) and Texas Tech (44.53).
In the men's 4 x 100 prelims the Aggie men were rolling until a hiccup on the final exchange. Tran Howell, Phiri, Bryan and Hardy won the heat in 40.19. Hardy had to come to a near stop before he ran out of the zone before getting the baton from Bryan.
LSU led qualifying with a 39.42, followed by Texas (39.68) and Mississippi State (39.72).
In the 100 hurdles Natasha Ruddock was leading the race until she clipped the 10th and final hurdle. USC's Nia Ali, who was challenging for the lead after the ninth hurdle, won the heat in an American leading 13.00 while Baylor's Tiffany McReynolds finished second in 13.05.
When Ruddock lost her momentum after the last hurdle she placed fourth in 13.56, the 12th best time in qualifying. A 13.32 was the cutoff as the ninth best time advancing to the final. Flemings placed fourth in her heat with a 13.73, 20th among the 70 entrants.
Wayne Davis II had the 12th best qualifying time in the 110 hurdles with a 13.96 that placed fifth in his heat.