IRVING - The Big 12 selected the Texas A&M tandem of Henry Lelei and Natosha Rogers as for its track and field Athlete of the Week honors.
Both Aggie runners set school records during the weekend while combining for three victories at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational held in New York City among a field of 130 schools.
Lelei was named outstanding male performer of the New Balance Collegiate Invitational as the Aggies won the men's team title with 85 points to finish 10 points ahead of LSU (75) with Mississippi State (59), Texas (44), and Baylor (36) rounding out the top five teams.
In the distance medley relay Lelei recorded a 1,600-meter split of 3:57.2 as he anchored the Aggies to a world-leading time of 9:29.71. Texas A&M claimed an NCAA automatic mark and set a school record in defeating a field that included Big 12 rival Oklahoma (9:30.13).
The Aggies, running with the foursome of James Bonn, Michael Preble, Joey Roberts and Lelei also broke meet (9:35.75, Stanford 2002) and facility records (9:32.89, Villanova 2008) in the distance medley relay.
In the men's mile, Lelei set another school record with his winning effort of 4:01.49. He broke a 12-year-old A&M record and finished ahead of Paul Lagno of Albany (4:01.86) and Iowa State's Rico Loy (4:02.55).
Rogers, meanwhile, ran away from the field of runners in the 5,000 meters. Her time of 15:58.40, which just missed the NCAA auto mark of 15:57.00, topped the field by 27-plus seconds and lowered her career best from a previous mark of 16:44.69 set at this meet a year ago.
She broke the eight-year-old school record of 16:02.72 set by Melissa Gulli at the 2004 NCAA Indoor meet and Rogers mark ranks second collegiately this season.
Rogers continued her streak of setting a school record each time she has raced this indoor season, now through five races.
After setting the A&M mile record on consecutive weekends, Rogers anchored the Aggie distance medley relay to a school record and also claimed the school record in the 3,000 meters.
USTFCCA RANKINGS
Texas A&M men and women each moved up the national team computer rankings this week. The Aggie men moved to No. 8 in the nation while the A&M women are now No. 9.
Arkansas continues to lead the men's field and are followed by Florida, LSU, Texas, Arizona, Florida State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Minnesota among the top 10 teams.
Oregon women remain No. 1 as well and are followed by LSU, Clemson, Arkansas, Central Florida, Texas, BYU, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Arizona among the top 10.