COLLEGE STATION - Two-time defending NCAA Indoor champions, Florida men and Oregon women, will headline the visiting teams competing in the Texas A&M Challenge presented by Mondo America this weekend at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. Â
Teams also competing include Arizona State, Tennessee and Texas Tech. Five of the six teams competing at A&M this weekend have claimed 14 of the past 16 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor team titles dating back to 2008.
The conference challenge meet, featuring two teams each from the Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, will take place on Friday and Saturday. After an afternoon 5,000-meter race (1:30 p.m.), action resumes at 6 p.m. with the heptathlon and pentathlon on Friday evening along with the distance medley relay and an Olympic development long jump.
On Saturday the heptathlon resumes at 11 a.m. while prelims in the 60 hurdles and 60 meters begins at 12:30 p.m. Then running finals start at 2 p.m.
The long jump held on Friday evening will feature a pair of Texas A&M All-America grads, Fabrice Lapierre and Julian Reid. Lapierre, the 2010 World Indoor long jump champion who competes for Australia, won the 2006 NCAA long jump title while Reid, who competes for Great Britain, finished second in the 2009 NCAA triple jump.
Also in the Olympic development long jump are Will Claye and Ashton Eaton. Claye competed for Oklahoma and Florida collegiatelly, finishing as the NCAA silver medalist in both the long jump and triple jump last year before earning a bronze medal in the triple jump at the World Championships. The versatile Eaton earned the World Championship silver medal in the decathlon this past summer.
Serving as the host, and half of the Big 12 equation in the Challenge meet, is three-time defending NCAA Outdoor champion Texas A&M. The Aggies will pair with Texas Tech while the Pac-12 is represented by Oregon, who claimed a men's team indoor title in 2009, and Arizona State, who won a pair of NCAA Indoor team titles in 2008. Competing as the tandem from the SEC are Florida and Tennessee, who claimed the NCAA Indoor women's title at Gilliam in 2009.
The Duck women enter the meet ranked No. 1 in 2012 behind the talents of Brianne Theisen, the collegiate record holder in the pentathlon, distance runner Jordan Hasay as well as sprinters Amber Purvis and English Gardner. Texas Tech women rank No. 8 while the Aggie women are No. 11.
Florida men are currently No. 2 in the 2012 rankings with A&M No. 9 and Oregon No. 19. Providing much of the Gators punch is the crew of U.S. 400 champion Tony McQuay, hurdler Eddie Lovett, Sean Obinwa in the 800 and heptathlete Gray Horn.
Texas A&M enters the meet coming off a split decision from its dual meet with LSU last weekend. The Aggie men defeated LSU, 88-68, while the A&M women fell, 82.5 to 76.5.
Ameer Webb turned in a sprint double with victories in the 60 (6.66) and 200 (20.94) as he set a world-leading time in the one-lap race and recorded the third-fastest mark by an Aggie in the short dash. Webb earned Big 12 Athlete of the Week honors for his effort.
Also setting a collegiate leading time early in the 2012 season was Michael Preble with his 1:49.51 victory in the 800. This weekend Preble will contest the 600 yards, an event he also holds the school record with a time of 1:08.50.
Henry Lelei, who just missed the Aggie mile record with his 4:04.66 win last week, will be the top contender in a solid 3,000-meter field.
Leading the A&M women will be Ashley Collier and Dominique Duncan in the 200 as pole vault record holder Laura Asimakis seeks another shot at 14 feet after clearing 13-10 last week.
Meanwhile Natosha Rogers moves up from the mile, where she recently set a pair of school records, to the 3,000. Rogers will still have a mile race as she anchors A&M's distance medley relay on Friday.