Aggies face Big 12 rivals in Baylor's Michael Johnson Classic
Apr 22, 2011 | Track and Field
April 22, 2011
WACO - Texas A&M will take a large contingent of its track and field team to the Michael Johnson Classic hosted by Baylor on Saturday. Some events this weekend will offer a preview of showdowns to come in a few weeks at the Big 12 Championships.
Field events begin at 9:30 a.m. with the women's javelin while the first session of running events start at noon. An evening session of track events start at 6 p.m. Admission to the meet is $7 for adults and $2 for youth.
The Aggies, with the women ranked No.1 and the men ranked No. 2, will see a field of 18 teams that include other Big 12 foes in Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas. In addition there will be TCU, Abilene Christian, North Texas, Sam Houston, Texas State, UT-Arlington as well as junior college programs.
Jessica Beard, the NCAA Indoor champion, will run her second 400 of the outdoor season and the field in Waco includes 2009 World Champion Sanya Richards-Ross along with four Longhorns. Jeneba Tarmoh, who won Texas Relays with a wind-aided 10.94, challenges a 200 field that includes Baylor's Tiffany Townsend, TCU's Jessica Young and Oklahoma's Candyce McGrone as well as a group of four Texas sprinters.
Prezel Hardy, Jr., who has recorded a best of 10.21 and a windy 10.18, at Baylor as they race the Bear duo of Woodrow Randall and Whitney Prevost along with TCU's Charles Silmon and the Texas pair of Trevante Rhodes and Marquise Goodwin.
In the women's 100 Dominique Duncan faces TCU's Young and OU's McGrone along with Allison Peter and Chalonda Goodman of Texas. Duncan ran a wind-aided best of 11.05 in the prelims of the Texas Relays and then posted a windy best of 22.79 to win the 200 at Florida last weekend.
Wayne Davis II, a winner at Florida in a windy 13.75, faces Texas hurdler Keiron Stewart, who has a wind-aided season best of 13.43.
A week after running her first outdoor race of the season, splitting a 55.5 on the 4 x 400 relay, Gabby Mayo will run on a 4 x 100 for the Aggies in Waco.
With the Big 12 Championships less than a month away, some Texas A&M athletes are still in the process of improving their marks as coaches evaluate who will make the trip to Norman, Oklahoma, within the allotted team size of 32 athletes per gender.
Nick Cook makes his outdoor debut in the shot put after an injury sidelined him during the indoor season. In the women's shot the Aggie tandem of Jennifer Edwards and Taylor Rosser are threatening to surpass 50 feet, which are marks they'll likely need to score in the conference meet. The Michael Johnson Classic field includes the top three throwers in the Big 12 with Oklahoma's tandem of Karen Shump and Tia Brooks along with Baylor's Skylar White.
Texas A&M will have nine pole vaulters in action. Laura Asimakis, the school record holder at 13-4.5, leads the women's crew of Aly Daily, Jessica Bonfield and Lauren Hodges. Dustin Phillip, who tops the team with a 16-7.5, leads a men's group of Colton Sandman, Kaleb Schrader, Kyle Tomasini and William Markert.
Asimakis also contests the javelin again this week after she threw 158-4 in her first javelin competition in over a year. Daily will also have a pole vault and javelin double in Waco. Other Aggies in the javelin include Bonnie Richardson, Lauren Berg and Kelly Czumble.
A&M's jumpers will contend with a pair of top conference performers in the women's long jump and triple jump. Sasha-Kay Matthias, Tiffany Peters and Daphne Fitzpatrick are in the long jump with Chantel Malone of Texas (21-0). Melissa Mays, Lisa Steinkamp, Haley Gooch and Jordan Wilson compete against Baylor's Jessica Ubanyionwu (42-10.75) in the triple jump.
A pair of high jumpers with season best of 7-0.5, A&M's duo of Cameron Alexander and Tyler Lee square off against Jamal Wilson of Texas (7-4.25) among a field of 27 that will also include professional Andra Manson, the 2008 World Indoor bronze medalist who has a career best of 7-8.5.
In distance races the Aggies will run Michah Dettmer and MacLean O'Donnell in the men's race and Sophie Blake, McKenze Neal and Natosha Rogers in the women's race.
Players Mentioned
