April 27, 2011
"Philadelphia and the Penn Relays are always a great place to go," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "We are entering a lot of relays and a lot of athletes this year. We've had some good experiences at the Penn Relays the past couple of years."
Action for the Aggies starts on Thursday and continues through Saturday evening. Coverage of the meet is available online, for a fee, through the www.thepennrelays.com website. ESPN will show some coverage on a delayed basis on Saturday evening. Texas A&M updates will be available on www.twitter.com/aggietrk.
The A&M men, who now claim the No. 1 status in the weekly USTFCCCA national team rankings, will contest the 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400, 4 x 800, and sprint medley. The Aggie women, who are currently No. 2 in the national team rankings after holding the No. 1 spot the entire outdoor season, are entered in the 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400, 4 x 800, shuttle hurdles and sprint medley.
Individual events entered by Texas A&M include the men's 100 meters, the 100 and 110 hurdles, women's 3,000 meters, men's 5,000 meters, high jump, long jump and triple jump.
"Penn is one of those meets that brings the best out of you," noted Henry. "It's all about the chaos that happens during this meet and how the athletes handle those situations. You don't use blocks in the first round on some of the relays and the gun could go off before your completely ready for the race. You have to understand everything that is going on.
"The preparation for this meet helps sharpen you for great competition. That's what we have to do this time of year to prepare for meets we have in the postseason with the Big 12 conference and the NCAA Championships. We've already had a great Texas Relays outing this month, so we are looking forward to this meet."
Title defenses from this meet for Texas A&M include the men's 4 x 100 along with the women's 4 x 100, 4 x 200 and shuttle hurdles. The Aggie women set collegiate records in the 4 x 200 and shuttle hurdles at last year's Penn Relays.
The A&M men have won the sprint relay the past two years at Penn and return Prezel Hardy, Jr., the current world junior leader in the 100 with a career best of 10.13 seconds.
With a 38.71 winning time from the Texas Relays, the Aggies enter the meet as the collegiate leaders with the fourth fastest time in the world for 2011.
In the women's 4 x 100, where A&M has also won the past two Penn Relays titles, a 42.87 victory from the Texas Relays serves as the collegiate leader for this season and is the third fastest mark in the world for 2011. Returning from last year's winning team at Penn are Dominique Duncan, Gabby Mayo and Jeneba Tarmoh. A freshman newcomer is Ashley Collier, who sports a windy best of 11.22 this season.
Three-time defending champions in the 4 x 200, the Aggie women established a collegiate record of 1:29.42 with last year's title. They will face a stern challenge from LSU, who won the Texas Relays earlier this month in 1:30.88. Auburn has been runner-up to A&M the past two years while LSU finished third twice.
A collegiate record of 52.50 was set by the Aggies in the shuttle hurdle relay a year ago. Returning from that line-up are Mayo, Natasha Ruddock and Dominique Flemings. Joining the group is senior heptathlete Daphne Fitzpatrick. Miami finished second a year ago while Central Florida, the winners in 2009, will have a strong foursome to contend for this year's title.
The Aggie men also enter the Penn Relays as current world leaders in the 4 x 400, 4 x 800 and sprint medley relays. Winning times of 3:00.45, 7:19.57 and 3:15.18 at the Texas Relays have A&M in contention for just its second victory in the 4 x 400 and first-ever titles in the other two relays. The last time an Aggie squad won the 4 x 400 at Penn was in 1996.
Another relay event the A&M women have never claimed at Franklin Field is the 4 x 400. The Aggies hold the top time in the world with the school record of 3:27.33 they set in claiming a first-ever Texas Relays title earlier in April. That mark also made A&M the fourth-fastest school ever in the 4 x 400.
Jessica Beard, who has recorded the fastest splits on the 4 x 400 for the past two years at the Penn Relays with a 50.9 in 2009 and 51.0 in 2010, recently split 49.6 twice at the Texas Relays during the prelims and finals.
In the women's 4 x 800 the Aggies set a school record of 8:42.42 in placing third at the Texas Relays, but a dropped baton on the first exchange of the sprint medley ended that effort prematurely.
Field events for Texas A&M at the Penn Relays includes a trio of 26-foot long jumpers in Melvin Echard (26-6.5w), Julian Reid (26-4.5) and Tyron Stewart (26-0.75).
Daphne Fitzpatrick returns as the college division high jump champion at Penn while Tyler Lee and Cameron Alexander make their debut in Franklin Field after each has cleared 7-0.5 in the past month.
Sasha-Kay Matthias won the college division of the triple jump at Penn last season with a windy 41-5.25 (12.63) and will compete in the Championship field this year along with Tiffany Peters, who placed fifth (41-5w / 12.62) in the Championship division in 2010. Melissa Mays will represent the Aggies in the college division triple jump.
Matthias and Peters will also long jump at Franklin Field along with freshman Lisa Steinkamp.
Individual events on the track have Donique' Flemings in the 100 hurdles while Wayne Davis II contests the 110 hurdles and MacLean O'Donnell each runs in a separate 5,000-meter race.
Ruddock finished second in the Penn Relays 100 hurdles a year ago when she recorded a career best of 12.87 seconds. Mayo hasn't raced over the hurdles since she fell in the final of the 60 hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships hosted by Texas A&M in mid March.
Davis has won four races this outdoor season and set a career best mark of 13.71 in defeating Kieron Stewart (13.74) of Texas this past weekend at Baylor. Davis defeated Florida's Eddie Lovett a week earlier with a wind-aided time of 13.75 in Gainesville.
Bryan, who ran third leg on the Aggies collegiate-leading 38.71 sprint relay, has a season best of 10.53 with a windy best of 10.31.
Rogers posted a career best of 16:25.79 for the 5,000 when she placed eighth at the Mt. SAC Relays. Hodges finished fifth in a 5,000 at the Texas Relays in 15:01.40. This will be the first race over 5,000 meters for O'Donnell this season.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
This week, with the national team rankings only reflecting marks from the 2011 season, the A&M men moved to No. 1 in the national team rankings while the women's season long hold on the top position was relinquished as they slid to No. 2 behind LSU.MEN: 1. Texas A&M, 2. LSU, 3. Florida State, 4. Florida, 5. Texas Tech, 6. Texas, 7. Virginia Tech, 8. Southern California, 9. Arizona, 10. Baylor.
WOMEN: 1. LSU, 2. Texas A&M, 3. Oregon, 4. Clemson, 5. Southern California, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Arizona, 8. Texas, 9. Texas Tech, 10. Arizona State.