Texas A&M
Oregon Pepsi Team Invitational
A&M men 2nd, women 3rd at Oregon Team Invitational
Apr 07, 2012 | Track and Field
EUGENE - The Oregon Ducks swept the men's and women's titles at the 23rd annual Pepsi Team Invitational they hosted in front of 5,402 supportive fans at Hayward Field on Saturday while the Aggie men finished runner-up and the A&M women placed third.
In the men's team scoring it was No. 16 Oregon claiming the victory with 204 points while No. 6 Texas A&M tallied 190 points for second place. Washington edged out UCLA for third place by a four-point margin, 138-134.
The No. 1 Oregon women totaled 221.5 points with Washington scoring 157 for second place. The No. 5 Aggies finished third with 149.5 points while UCLA was fourth with 135.
Amid a dozen victories for A&M two Aggies - Donique' Flemings and Prezel Hardy, Jr. - had double wins on the day while another pair of school records were toppled by Henry Lelei and Natosha Rogers.
Flemings won the 100 hurdles in a windy 13.13 and then claimed the 400 hurdles with a stellar career best of 57.76, which ranks No. 4 all-time at Texas A&M.
"My practices all week have been good and I've prepared myself for today," noted Flemings. "I just wanted to go out there and do what I practice. Coach and I had a strategy and I went out there and was successful at achieving it."
Flemings faced Oregon's Brianne Theisen in the 100 hurdles and held her edge to the finish line with a 13.13 to 13.21 victory with a 2.4 aiding wind. In the 400 hurdles, where Flemings had a previous career best of 58.10 from the 2010 season, she defeated another Duck, Lyndsay Pearson, by a 57.76 to 59.87 margin.
"The atmosphere here is great, everyone is yelling and cheering for you to do well," said Flemings. "I knew the field was going to be competitive in both hurdle races. So I focused on my lane and just ran my race.
"I was so excited to see 57 on the scoreboard. I went into the race with the mindset to run it the way coach told me to. I focused on me and just me. When I crossed the line and looked up I said 'I did it, I did it."
Hardy, who anchored the Aggie 4 x 100 to a 39.40 win, swept the sprint double with times of 10.32 and 20.60. His 200-meter time established a meet record in bettering a 20.74 set in 2008 while Hardy's 100 mark just missed the three-way tie for the meet record at 10.30 with Gerald Phiri (A&M, 2010), Augustin Olobia (Washington St., 1991) and Slip Watkins (LSU, 1988).
"I love this track, I can't say that enough," stated Hardy, Jr. "I've been saying that ever since we got the schedule and I saw that we were coming to Oregon. All this week I've been saying 'I can't wait until we get to Oregon.' I ran a PR in the 200 here last year and I was really looking forward to run something faster this weekend. To be here with this crowd and environment, I just love the track. I loved it all."
Joining Hardy on the sprint relay were Ricky Babineaux, Carlyle Roudette and Michael Bryan. They rolled along to a comfortable win in 39.40 over a 40.69 from runner-up UCLA.
"Even though we replaced Ameer Webb with Carlyle this weekend we ran a solid race," noted Hardy, Jr. "But there is always things we can work on. If we are without Ameer for another week, then we have a solid base with Carlyle."
Lelei ran his first 3,000-meter steeplechase in an Aggie uniform and cruised to a winning time of 8:45.80 to better the school record of 8:47.78 set by Juan DeBastos in 2001 at the Cardinal Invitational in Stanford, California. Henry lowered his previous personal best of 8:50.17 and is currently the second fastest collegian for the 2012 season.
"It was really great competing here," said Lelei. "I've been watching videos of other meets that have been held here to get prepared. I think the crowd helped make me run fast today. Everybody was cheering, so it was a good atmosphere.
"I didn't expect to run that fast today since the weather was a little chilly, but I'm very happy with an 8:45 to start in the steeplechase. I think if I have more competition in a race that time will come down more."
Also producing career best times in the steeplechase race were Stephen Curry (9:01.55) and Isaac Spencer (9:06.10) as they placed second and fourth for A&M. Curry moves to No. 7 on the Aggie all-time list while Spencer is now at No. 10.
In setting her ninth school record this season Rogers led a majority of the 5,000-meter race before Oregon's Alex Kosinski sprinted away for the win in the final stages. Kosinski broke the meet record of 15:54.13 set in 1997 with a 15:36.90 collegiate-leading time while Rogers placed second in 15:45.80, also bettering the previous meet record held by Arizona's Amy Skierez and currently is the second fastest collegiate time of the season.
Rogers bettered the A&M school record of 15:52.30 set by Melissa Gulli during the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento.
"It's always a bit of a shock moving from the 1,500 to the 5,000," said Rogers, who set schools records in the 1,500 during the past two weeks of the outdoor season. "It's my race and I think with that PR I'm off to a good start. I definitely can run faster.
"I only heard them calling out Alex's name during the race. I kind of used that to make myself mad and run faster. It was cool hearing the crowd clapping for us on every lap. I need to learn how to switch gears, so I'll start working on that in workouts. Hopefully, it will kick in by the time it actually counts."
Other winning efforts on the day for the Aggies included Jonathan Turner in the long jump (24-1.75w), the women's 4 x 100 (43.61), Ricky Babineaux in the 400 (47.20), LaKeidra Stewart in the 100 (11.58 PR), Gregory Coleman in the 400 hurdles (52.16) and Brea Garrett in the shot put (49-1.75).
Stewart led off A&M's 4 x 100 winning effort that included Olivia Ekponé, Dominique Duncan and Collier. The time of 43.61 broke the meet record of 43.89 set by the Aggies in 1989 and left Oregon over a second back in 44.86 as runner-up.
Later Stewart sped to a career best of 11.58 (1.0 wind) to claim the 100 over Oregon's Lauryn Newsome (11.74) and A&M teammate Chandrell Stephens (11.90). Meanwhile, Collier finished second in the 200 with a 23.45 behind Oregon's English Gardner (23.24).
In the men's sprints Babineaux and Oscar Ramirez finished 1-2 in the 400 with times of 47.20 and 47.93. Wayne Davis II ran 13.70w (3.7) and Kenneth Minkah clocked 14.02 to place second and third in the 110 hurdles behind Oregon's Johnathan Cabral (13.63w). Bryan added points as he placed fourth (10.44) in the 100 and third (20.99) in the 200.
The women's 400 had Kanika Beckles (53.42) and Ekponé (53.78) move to No. 6 and No. 9 on the Aggie all-time list as they finished second and fourth, respectively.
Runner-up performances in the field events included Sam Humphreys (240-2 / 73.21) in the javelin, Dalton Rowan (179-6 / 54.71) in the discus, Cameron Alexander (6-9.75 / 2.08) in the high jump, Jena Hemann (5-8 / 1.73) in the women's high jump, Lauren Berg (148-0 / 45.11) in the javelin.
Another pair of second place results for the Aggies included both 4 x 400 races. In the women's race with Oregon, the Ducks prevailed 3:35.04 to 3:35.33. On the men's side Oregon's winning margin was even closer with A&M running 3:08.98 behind the 3:08.90 for the Ducks.
Players Mentioned
