BIRMINGHAM – A pair of Aggie track and field athletes earned weekly SEC honors as announced by the conference office on Tuesday. Deon Lendore was selected as the men's SEC Runner of the Week while Brea Garrett received the women's SEC Field Athlete of the Week.
Lendore extended his winning streak in the 400 meters to 16 consecutive races, dating back to last season, by the narrowest of margins during the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas this past weekend.
Recording a season best time of 45.38 seconds, Lendore edged teammate Bralon Taplin's 45.39 clocking from winning a separate section of the seeded 400 meters. They finished first and second overall with the second and third fastest times in the world this season.
Lendore and Taplin teamed up in the 4x400 relay as the Aggies won in 3:03.47, the third fastest collegiate time ever indoors. Texas A&M set the collegiate record of 3:03.20 during the 2014 SEC Championships and posted the second fastest time of 3:03.23 two weeks ago on the Arkansas track.
In winning her fifth consecutive meet of the season, Brea Garrett produced a collegiate-leading toss of 73-1.25 (22.38) in defeating an elite field of weight throwers at the Tyson Invitational.
Facing five of the top seven throwers this season, defending NCAA champion Garrett took over the lead with a fifth round 73-0 (22.25) toss that bettered the previous collegiate-leading effort of 72-8. Garrett then went 73-1.25 in the sixth round to seal the victory.
Runner-up to Garrett with a mark of 71-5.25 (21.77) was Missouri's Kearsten Peoples, the previous collegiate leader this season. The rest of the top five finishers in the meet included Kentucky's Beckie Famurewa (70-10.5 | 21.60), Alexis Cooks of Akron (68-5.25 | 20.86), and Miami's Tiffany Okieme (68-2.5 | 20.79).
Garrett will seek to improve upon her runner-up finish in the SEC Indoor Championships next week in Lexington, Kentucky, before defending her NCAA title in mid-March at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.