Texas A&M
Mondo Challenge
Aggies set six A&M school records amid 11 wins
Jan 28, 2012 | Track and Field
COLLEGE STATION - Six school records fell on the weekend amid 11 victories by the Aggies during the Texas A&M Challenge meet sponsored by Mondo America, where the attendance totaled 1,733 fans.
In the conference scoring format of the meet, the Big 12 men won by 50 points with a total of 277.25 with the combination of A&M and Texas Tech. The Pac-12 with the pairing of Arizona State and Oregon placed second with 227.25 points while the SEC finished third with 164.5 points from the combo of Florida and Tennessee.
For the women's conference scoring it was the SEC coming out on top by two points, 216-214 over the Big 12 with the Pac-12 in third with 178 points.
After the Texas A&M women set a school record in the distance medley relay on Friday evening, five more Aggie standards fell in Saturday's action.
Joey Roberts posted a world leading 1:47.14 in the 800 in the process of breaking the school record held by current teammate Michael Preble (1:47.27 in 2011).
Roberts led from the gun and held off a determined closing effort by Florida's Sean Obinwa, who was second in 1:47.22. They both earned an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships that take place in mid March.
Just missing the standard of 1:47.30 was Arizona State's Mason McHenry (1:47.86) and Oregon's Boru Guyota (1:48.84). Finishing fifth in the race with a career best was A&M's James Bonn with a 1:50.30.
For the third consecutive week the Aggie tandem of Natosha Rogers and Laura Asimakis set a school record.
Asimakis improved upon her own A&M standard in the pole vault, where another inch was added with a clearance of 13 feet, 11 inches (4.24 metric). This time she also took three attempts at 14-1.25 (4.30).
After setting the mile record two weeks in a row, Rogers moved up to the 3,000 and clocked a winning time of 9:12.83 to demolish the record of 9:24.96 set by Melissa Gulli in 2004 on an oversized track. While just missing the NCAA automatic standard of 9:10.00, Rogers bettered the solid field by 10-plus seconds as she ran the second fastest collegiate time this season to date.
Henry Lelei faced current school record holder Kevin Burnett in the men's 3,000-meter field. Both bettered the previous A&M mark of 8:07.73 set by Burnett in 2010.
Lelei headed for the victory, but Arizona State's Nick Happe had the lean at the finish for an 8:00.66 win. Lelei claimed second in 8:01.01 while Burnett placed fifth with a personal best of 8:05.85.
Aggie thrower Casey Strong also faced a teammate and current school record holder, Cole Knuth, in the men's weight throw. Strong produced the top mark ever by an Aggie with a toss of 61-1.5 (18.63) to place second as Knuth challenged with a 60-7.75 (18.48) for third. Florida's Jeremy Postin won the event with a 65-9 (20.04) effort.
Other victories for Texas A&M included a sweep of the 600 yards with Tiffany Singleton (1:22.82) and Michael Preble (1:08.56) as he just missed his own school record by 0.06 of a second.
A sweep of the 200 had Dominique Duncan posting a victory in 23.54 while Ameer Webb led a A&M 1-2-3 with a 20.98 victory as Prezel Hardy, Jr. (20.99) and Michael Bryan (21.19) set indoor career best times.
Hardy won the 60 in 6.72 while Wayne Davis II claimed the 60 hurdles in 7.78 to equal the meet record set last year. Ricky Babineaux sped to a 46.87 winning time in the 400 while Jordan Wilson produced a leap of 40-1.5 (12.23) for victory in the triple jump.
Players Mentioned
