Texas A&M
New Balance Collegiate Invitational
Aggies win team title in NYC, Lelei top performer
Feb 04, 2012 | Track and Field
Henry Lelei was named outstanding male performer of the meet. He anchored the A&M distance medley relay to victory on Friday evening. Then he won the mile on Saturday, setting an Aggie school record with his 4:01.49 run.
"The most important thing about this weekend is that there are very good teams here and not everybody is lining everything up like they would for a conference meet," noted Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "There are a lot of different events, and some that you only run here and nowhere else. It's about competing and winning and beating the people you're lined up against in that particular event. Our people did a fine job of that this weekend."
Finishing behind the total of 85 points for the Aggie men was LSU with 75 points. Mississippi State (59), Texas (44) and Baylor (36) round out the top five. It was the second title for the A&M men, who also won in 2010.
Lelei, who bettered the school record of 4:04.16 set by Mike Hummel in 2000, controlled the field early on and faced a couple of challenges from runner-up Paul Lagno of Albany, who finished in 4:01.86. Rico Loy of Iowa State placed third in 4:02.55.
Another school record fell in the women's 4 x 800 relay where the Aggies posted a time of 8:55.27 for second place. They bettered the A&M mark of 8:58.79 set here last year. Running for the Aggies were Tiffany Singleton, Aliese Hyde, Jillian Anderson and Hillary Hagan.
"A couple of us didn't have good races earlier in the meet, so this was an opportunity to bounce back and do something for the other two runners on the relay," said Hyde. "We knew BYU was going to be the main competition going in."
BYU won the race in a meet record of 8:37.97 while A&M finished ahead of Cincinnati (8:56.75), Richmond (8:57.30) and Boston College (8:57.94).
"This was the first time for me to run first leg on the 4x800," said Singleton. "It was an experience for me, but I think we all did pretty good. We only get one shot at this indoors and we want to try to break the school record when we can. To have our names as part of a record is a cool thing."
Anderson, a freshman, had her first experience with the Aggie 4 x 800 in the school record performance.
"I'm extremely blessed to have such amazing teammates and motivators," said Anderson. "I wanted to do well for them and not let them down in the this record attempt."
Hagan added: "My main goal was to hang on to second place on the anchor leg. In trying to make up for an earlier race in the 800 I ran with the eye of the tiger."
The two school records broken today along with the three set yesterday marks the 17th school record this indoor season in 13 events for the Aggies.
"It's pretty incredible to have that many so far this season," said Henry. "They are just lining up each week and setting some goals for themselves. They are going out and attaining them."
Capping off the meet with the 4 x 400 the A&M men controlled the tempo and captured a 3:07.98 win with the crew of Ricky Babineaux (47.4), Joey Roberts (46.9), Deon Lendore (47.0) and Michael Preble (46.7).
The Aggies defeated Mississippi State (3:08.50), LSU (3:08.85), Texas Tech (3:11.33) and Baylor (3:11.84) in their section of the final.
For the A&M women a 3:35.95 won the final section of the 4 x 400, but came up short of the 3:35.58 recorded by Clemson in another section. The Aggies placed second overall with the foursome of Ibukun Mayungbe (55.0), Kamarie Brown (52.6), Donique' Flemings (55.4) and Olivia Ekpone (52.9).
Clemson won the women's team title with 93 points over BYU's 64. LSU finished third with 60 points, just half a point better than Texas A&M, who was fourth with 59.5. Arkansas (49) finished fifth and Baylor (44) was sixth.
Cameron Alexander became just the fourth Aggie to clear 7-0 in the high jump and the first since 1991. A clearance of 7-1.75 (2.18) placed Alexander third. Mississippi State's James Harris won the competition with a 7-5.25 (2.27) clearance."When I was jumping I didn't even know the bar was that high," said Alexander, who needed three attempts to get over 6-11.75 (2.13), but scaled 7-1.75 on his first attempt. "I just knew I had to get over it if I wanted to try to win. I knew it was going to happen today."
Alexander is now the No. 4 performer with the No. 7 performance on the Aggie all-time list. He currently trails Jimmy Howard (7-4.5), Lee Pool (7-3) and Don Jones (7-2.5).
"I couldn't believe I made 7-1 on the first bar, but I knew I was still in it and had to keep fighting," Alexander noted. "When I cleared 7-1 I thought I won it since I cleared on the first bar. I've been waiting a long time for this to happen. I knew if I stuck to Coach VanHootegem's plan eventually it's going to happen. I just needed the breakthrough."
Henry added: "That is a big jump for Cameron, because he as worked so hard for a long time. It's going to pay off for him. He's looked good and it's fun to watch him now."
Dominique Duncan continued a solid season in the 200 with a runner-up finish of 23.63 while teammates Ashley Collier (23.66) and Ekpone (24.00) finished third and seventh as the Aggies totaled 16 points in the event.
In qualifying for the 200 final Duncan ran 23.79, Ekpone posted a 23.96 and Collier ran 23.99.
MacLean O'Donnell finished second in the Championship 3,000 meters with a personal best of 8:07.95 after leading the race for a majority of the 15 laps. Villanova's Mathew Mildenhall won the race in 8:06.23. O'Donnell moved to No. 3 performer with the No. 4 performance on the Aggie all-time list.
Oscar Ramirez picked up third place points in the 800 as he ran 1:50.27.
Another pair of Aggies placed fifth and sixth in the college division of the 3,000 meters as Stephen Curry ran 8:20.17 and Isaac Spencer clocked 8:20.31.
Michael Bryan finished fifth in the 200 final with a 21.32 while Babineaux (21.64) placed 10th. In qualifying for the finals Bryan ran 21.48 with Babineaux at 21.59.
In the men's weight throw Casey Strong led a trio of Aggies with a sixth-place toss of 60-4.75 (18.41). Teammates Landon Hartwick (55-0.75) and Cole Knuth (54-6.75) finished 18th and 19th.
A 4:08.77 in the mile placed C.J. Brown seventh in the college division after placing fifth in his section. Colin Slattery finished 19th with a 4:13.04.
Aliese Hyde ran 2:14.40 in the college 800 for seventh while Hillary Hagan ran 2:18.14.
In the men's triple jump Babatunde Amusu finished eighth with a mark of 50-4.5 (15.35). Dave Brown (48-0.5) and Olabanji Asekun (47-2.5) placed 17th and 21st.
Jena Hemann and Chelsea Utley were among nine jumpers to only clear the opening height of 5-8.75 (1.75) before 5-10.75 (1.80) knocked out a majority of the field. Hemann tied for ninth while Utley tied for 11th.
Players Mentioned
