Texas A&M
Penn Relay Carnival
A&M women claim first ever Penn Relays 4x400 title
Apr 28, 2012 | Track and Field
With the Aggies involved in seven Championship of America relays on Saturday, A&M finished second in both 4 x 200 relays. The Aggie men were also third in the 4 x 400, fourth in the 4 x 100, fifth in the 4 x 800, and seventh in the 4 x Mile.
Individual efforts for the Aggies had Wayne Davis II finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles while Natosha Rogers placed sixth in the Olympic Development mile.
"To win the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400, both of which are NCAA events, the ladies did a great job," Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said. "They managed to run a season best of 3:33 even on a day where it's 50 degrees. That doesn't happen on a day like today very often. I think they are ready to run even a little faster and this kind of proves it."
Aggie frosh Olivia Ekponé anchored the women's 4 x 400 to the historic win with a split of 51.9 seconds as she held off the charge of Oregon anchor Phyllis Francis (52.2) as the Ducks were runner-up in 3:34.08. Texas Tech placed third in 3:35.37.
"I've been running here since my sophomore year of high school, so I'm used to the environment," said Ekponé, who also ran on the A&M winning 4 x 100 on Friday. "It's absolutely wonderful to be here in maroon and white this time. I love the crowd and the energy is amazing.
"I haven't won a Championship of America before, so to be a freshman at Texas A&M and win two in one weekend is absolutely amazing. I have no words to describe how excited I am."
Kanika Beckles led off for A&M with a 54.6 as Ibukun Mayungbe followed with a 53.7 split.
"I was pretty confident we could do well and I just wanted to do my best on the first leg," Beckles said. "I could feel the energy from the crowd. I had no doubts we could do well if we worked together."
Mayungbe added: "I'm really happy with what we accomplished today. My teammates did so well and I'm excited for the rest of the season."
While Texas Tech held a slight lead off the first exchange, Mayungbe had the Aggies even at the next exchange of the baton. Donique' Flemings then supplied a 53.3 that kept A&M in front.
"We went into it knowing we just had to run our race," said Flemings. "Each one of us had to run our leg. Last year a dropped baton kept us from winning it, so that just made us work harder this time."
The Aggie men were battling to defend its 2011 Penn Relay 4 x 400 title as the race reached the anchor leg with A&M frosh Deon Lendore in the lead and Mississippi State's Tavaris Tate a stride behind.
Tate dropped the baton with 300m left to end the Bulldogs bid for the win, but LSU moved into contention with anchor Riker Hylton along with Penn State.
Lendore continued to lead coming off the final curve, but Hylton (45.4) and Penn State's Bernard Bennett-Green (45.3) still had enough real estate to move ahead of A&M.
LSU claimed a 0.3 victory, 3:04.47 to 3:04.78, over Penn State while the Aggies settled for third with a 3:05.01.
"I felt like we were in good position to win the men's 4 x 400, but our freshman settled in a little bit with a lead of 6 to 8 meters," noted Henry. "He just made a mistake, but I bet he doesn't make it again."
A&M's foursome in the men's 4 x 400 included Ricky Babineaux (46.5), Joey Roberts (46.2), Michael Preble (46.3) and Lendore (46.0).
"It was good to see Joey Roberts and Michael Preble coming back and running well," added Henry. "This was an important meet for them as two of our seniors who were on the track this weekend."
Both of the Texas A&M 4 x 200 relays produced runner-up finishes. The women clocked 1:32.25 behind a 1:31.86 from LSU, ending the Aggies streak of four consecutive Penn Relays titles. Meanwhile, the A&M men ran 1:22.85 behind a 1:21.71 from Jamaica's UTech.
The line-up for the A&M women included Chandrell Stephens, Ekponé, Ashley Collier and Dominique Duncan. They finished ahead of Clemson (1:33.92), Illinois (1:34.29), Pittsburgh (1:34.60), and Hampton (1:37.17). Oregon did not finish the race.
Carlyle Roudette replaced Ameer Webb from the line-up the Aggie men had in the prelims of the 4 x 200. Babineaux led off with Roudette on second leg. Michael Bryan and Prezel Hardy, Jr. completed the line-up.
Finishing behind UTech and A&M in the men's 4 x 200 final were South Carolina (1:23.24), North Carolina A&T (1:24.20), Hampton (1:24.22), Indiana (1:24.36), Savannah State (1:25.01) and Oklahoma (1:25.08).
The Aggie men were fourth in the 4 x 100 with a 39.66 as they ran the same quartet that later contested the 4 x 200. Auburn, who won the Texas Relays in 38.30, added the Penn Relays title with a 39.34 with UTech of Jamaica (39.46) second and LSU (39.49) third.
Finishing behind A&M were Illinois (39.78), G.C. Foster (39.84), Texas Tech (40.19) and Hampton (40.54).
Natosha Rogers ran 4:41.00 in the Olympic Development mile to place sixth amid a field of collegians and pro athletes. Rogers led the field through the first three laps with splits of 71.0, 2:23 and 3:35.
"This type of environment was crazy, it really made the nerves kick in," said Rogers, whose mile equates to a 4:20.2 1,500 time. "I didn't have a normal start, but I still managed to get back into the lead, so that made me feel better."
Molly Beckwith went into the lead with 300 meters remaining and won with a 4:36.71. Along the backstretch a couple more runners passed Rogers, who tried to stay with the leaders. Second through seventh place was separated by just one second at the finish line.
Lianne Farber of North Carolina finished second in 4:40.10 and Rogers was the fourth collegiate finisher behind Penn State's Rebekka Simko (4:40.75) and Heather Wilson (4:40.92) of Connecticut.
Rogers bettered her mile time of 4:45.84 that broke the Aggie indoor school record earlier this season.
"I don't like playing the games in a race like that, I just like to get it done," noted Rogers. "I'm a little disappointed since I wanted to get into the high 4:30s. I just need to train myself to be in this kind of environment. It was fun running with a mix of pros and collegians."
Wayne Davis II ran 13.71 (0.6 wind) for fourth place in the 110 hurdles. Andrew Riley of Illinois won the race in 13.55 with West Indies Hansle Parchment in second at 13.61 while Miami's Devon Hill finished third in 13.68. LSU's Barrett Nugent was disqualified with a false start.
Texas A&M ran 7:21.59 for fifth place in the 4 x 800 relay with a crew of James Bonn, Roberts, Oscar Ramirez and Preble.
A stellar leg by Roberts in the 4 x 800 moved the Aggies from 10th place to first place within the space of 20 meters. Following a 1:52.5 by James Bonn on the opening leg, Roberts covered the first 400 of his leg in 49 seconds on the way to a 1:47.9.
Roberts recorded the fastest split among the 12 teams in the Championship of America 4 x 800. The next best split was 1:48.9 by Penn State anchor Robby Creese, who led the Nittany Lions to victory in 7:19.76.
"I wanted everyone in this stadium to know that this is it for me," explained Roberts. "I left everything I had on this track. I never wanted to look back and say I could have done more.
"It would have been perfect to have both races end in victory, but knowing I gave it my all, knowing I gave my team every inch and ounce of my abilities puts me at ease. If anyone saw that 4 x 800 they know how bad I wanted it. That's enough for me."
Ramirez maintained the A&M lead through 500 meters of his third leg carry before giving way to Penn State. Ramirez completed his leg in 1:50.4 before handing off to Michael Preble.
A five-team race included Oregon, Columbia and Villanova in addition to the Aggies and Penn State. Preble held the lead for a while, but ended up at the back of the five-team pack with a 1:50.8 split.
Oregon finished second in 7:20.22 with a 1:49.1 from anchor Elijah Greer while Columbia claimed third in 7:20.80. Villanova moved ahead of the Aggies for fourth in 7:21.04.
In the 4 x Mile the Aggies ran 16:42.20 for seventh place with the foursome of Will Barry (4:11.4), MacLean O'Donnell (4:06.5), C.J. Brown (4:13.1) and Henry Lelei (4:11.2).
At the first exchange A&M was in sixth place, then handed off the baton in seventh place on the next pair of baton exchanges. Lelei passed Georgetown on his anchor leg to move into sixth place, but the Hoyas anchor claimed sixth place by passing Lelei in the final stages of the race.
Princeton won the race in 16:16.79 after taking the distance medley relay on Friday. Columbia finished second in 16:17.86 with Indiana third in 16:18.20.
Aggie grads were part of the USA vs. The World series of relay events on Saturday which had the United States winning all six relay races.
Porscha Lucas ran the opening 200m leg for USA Blue as they claimed the sprint medley relay (200-200-400-800) in a winning time of 3:42.85. Joining Lucas on the relay were Barbara Pierre, Phoebe Wright and Maggie Vessey.
USA Blue defeated Great Britain (3:43.72), Jamaica (3:45.79) and Russia (3:45.97) while USA Red did not finish after a baton drop. A&M grad Jeneba Tarmoh ran the second leg for the USA Red with LaShaunte'a Moore, who trains in College Station, on the first leg.
Later in the 4 x 100 Tarmoh ran first leg on the USA Blue squad and handed off to Miki Barber, but the next exchange wasn't as smooth and the team didn't finish.
USA Red won the race in a meet record 42.19 seconds ahead of Jamaica's 43.31. The USA Red squad included Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter.
The 4 x 400 races featured Demetrius Pinder running for the Bahamas and Jessica Beard competing for USA Blue.
Pinder ran the lead-off leg in 45.2 for the Bahamas giving a lead to second leg Ramon Miller. The Bahamas finished second in 3:00.46 as Chris Brown anchored in 45.6 after a 44.5 carry from Michael Mathieu. LaShawn Merritt pushed the USA Red team to the lead with a 44.8 anchor for a 3:00.15 victory over a 3:00.56 for the Bahamas.
Beard ran the second leg of the USA Blue relay that placed third in 3:27.08 behind USA Red (3:21.18) and Jamaica (3:26.55). Finishing behind USA Blue were Great Britain (3:28.71), Nigeria (3:31.59) and Canada (3:31.88).
Players Mentioned
