FAYETTEVILLE – A pair of Aggies head into the NCAA Indoor championships with titles to defend this weekend at the Randal Tyson Track Complex as Texas A&M sends a group of 14 athletes to contest 11 events.
The Aggies enter the national meet with the men ranked No. 4 and the women No. 7 in the latest national team computer rankings. A year ago the A&M women finished fifth while the men tied for eighth place. Favorites for the men's title include Florida, Oregon, and Arkansas while the top three ranked women's teams include Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky.
“We're trying to win and be the best we can indoors,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “We're going to compete at the level we are at this point of the season. This year the meet looks to me like a low score, in the 30's or 40's, might win.”
Coverage of the meet on Friday and Saturday is available through ESPN3.com, which starts at 5:50 p.m. on Friday (http://es.pn/1CHZ9JU) and 4:50 p.m. on Saturday (http://es.pn/1EvYCd5). Live results of the meet will be available online (http://goo.gl/DcKwTs).
Deon Lendore lines up in the 400 meters after sweeping both NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles a year ago on the way to winning the Bowerman Award as the top male collegiate track and field athlete. In addition to facing an elite field, Lendore is returning from an injury that prevented him from finishing his prelim race during the SEC Championships.
Teammate Bralon Taplin, the SEC runner-up, joins Lendore in the 400 as they square off against current collegiate leader and SEC champion Najee Glass of Florida. That trio ranks second, third and fourth on the 2015 world list with times of 45.34 by Glass, 45.38 by Lendore and 45.39 by Taplin. Each mark was set on the Arkansas track that plays host the NCAA Indoor championships.
Brea Garrett returns as the defending champion in the weight throw and she has won a pair of meets in the new throwing facility at the Tyson Track Complex. Garrett bettered five of the top seven collegians during the Tyson Invitational with a winning mark of 73-1 ¼ (22.28) that claimed the collegiate lead for a week from Missouri's Kearsten Peoples, who was second in the Tyson meet.
Peoples (73-8) won the SEC title over Garrett (72-3 ½), who placed second in the conference meet for the third consecutive year. Prior to the conference meet Peoples also reclaimed the collegiate lead with a 74-11 ¼ mark during a home meet. Garrett, who has won 11 meets and placed second three times over the past two years, set a personal best of 74-4 ¼ (22.66) in the event last year.
“Repeating is always tough to do, the goal is to do your best,” said Henry. “We always strive to get a little better each year. Somebody may come along that is quite a bit better than you from time to time. If you perform better than you did the previous year we're going to be pretty pleased with that effort.”
A pair of individual collegiate leaders among the Aggie crew includes Shavez Hart in the men's 200 and Shamier Little in the women's 400.
Little motored to a definitive SEC win in the 400 as she produced a time of 51.37 that ranks 10th on the all-time world list for marks on an oversized track, making her the third fastest collegian and second fastest American.
“Shamier works hard and is just now figuring out that she can do this indoors,” stated Henry. “She is an intermediate hurdler outdoors and has run on our relays, but she is figuring out she can be a great quarter-miler as well. She has a lot of room for improvement. I think anybody who runs against Shamier should be prepared to run their best.”
A year ago Little won her section of the 400 final at the NCAA Indoor to place third overall with a 51.96. In her heat Little defeated the Texas tandem of Courtney Okolo (51.97) and Kendall Baisden (52.01). Both of those Longhorns return along with teammate Ashley Spencer, who placed second last season in 51.71.
Okolo clocked 51.35 this season at altitude, which is adjusted to 51.46 for seeding in the NCAA meet, while Baisden has run 51.81. Another threat is Taylor Ellis-Watson of Arkansas, who placed third in the SEC (52.03) and ran 51.72 on her home track to win the Tyson Invitational.
Hart posted a 20.57 world-leading time in early February and placed second in the SEC with a 20.90 behind a 20.69 from Aaron Ernest of LSU and ahead of a 20.96 by Florida's Dedric Dukes, who placed second in the NCAA final a year ago with a 20.34 run at altitude. A&M's Devin Jenkins, who finished sixth in the SEC final, joins Hart in the 200 and has posted a best of 20.89 this season.
Kamaria Brown seeks to add an NCAA Indoor 200 title to the NCAA Outdoor crown she claimed last summer. In the recent SEC Indoor final Brown finished third after winning her section with a 23.03 while the next section had two runners – Kyra Jefferson of Florida and Dezerea Bryant of Kentucky – both clocking 23.02 to finish first and second.
Brown is seeded third among the entries for the national meet with a 22.97 this season. Jefferson leads the field at 22.81 while Oregon's Jenna Prandini has produced a 22.94.
An injury prevented Brown from finishing the NCAA Indoor final a year ago after placing fourth in 2013 (22.90) and third in 2012 (23.05). Joining Brown is teammate Ashton Purvis, who finished fourth in the 2014 final after placing sixth in 2013 with identical times of 23.11.
In the men's 4x400 relay, the Aggies have produced the second and third fastest collegiate times ever with winning efforts of 3:03.23 (Razorback Inv.) and 3:03.47 (Tyson Inv.), both of which were recorded on the Tyson track this season. Those performances by Gregory Coleman, Taplin, Shavez Hart and Lendore, only trail the collegiate record of 3:03.23 set by Texas A&M in 2014.
The Aggies are undefeated in seven races this season and recently claimed a third consecutive SEC Indoor title in the 4x400, posting a 3:03.75 without Lendore in the lineup. Deon Hickey ran third leg at the conference meet while Taplin moved to the anchor leg. Taplin passed Florida (3:04.28) in the final 40m of the race to secure the victory.
LSU, who placed third in the SEC (3:05.05), is the defending NCAA Indoor champion in the 4x400 as Florida and Texas A&M were disqualified in last year's race. The Tigers, who have run a season best of 3:04.28, won the 2014 title with a 3:04.10.
Medal contenders for the Aggies in field events include triple jumper Latario Collie and vaulter Chase Wolfle.
Collie, the NJCAA Indoor triple jump champion in 2014, is seeded third with a mark of 54-9 ¼ (16.96) he produced as runner-up in the Tyson Invitational. Collie also produced a 54-4 (16.56) to place second in the SEC. Florida's Marquise Dendy, the current world leader at 56-6 ½ (17.23), won both of those meets against Collie.
Wolfle equaled the A&M school record of 18-0 ½ (5.50) to finish third in the SEC pole vault behind Andrew Irwin of Arkansas (18-3 ¾) and Jake Blankenship of Tennessee (18-3 ¾). Wolfle, who tied for 11th at the NCAA Indoor last year, is seeded ninth going into the meet. The list leader is Akron's Shawn Barber, who broke the collegiate record this season with a 19-4 ½ (5.90) vault.
Jena Hemann placed eighth in the NCAA pentathlon a year ago and set a school record of 4,193 points. She has neared that mark twice this season in scoring 4,160 to win the Aggie Invitational and 4,179 to place fifth in the SEC. Hemann is seeded 11th in the pentathlon, which is topped by defending NCAA champion Kendall Williams of Georgia with a score of 4,609.
In the women's 60m the defending champion, Remona Burchell of Alabama, is now the collegiate record holder in the event after she won the SEC title in 7.08 seconds to clip the previous mark of 7.09 shared by a pair of sprinters. Aggie Aaliyah Brown, who placed fourth in the SEC 60m, has run a career best of 7.28 twice this season, which is equal to the 11th fastest time in the national field.
The A&M women's 4x400 is seeded fifth with a 3:32.84 they ran as runner-up in the Tyson Invitational. The Aggies recently finished third in the SEC with a 3:32.90 behind Arkansas (3:30.79) and Kentucky (3:31.43). Texas is the top seed with a 3:29.36 while Florida, who finished fourth in the SEC, is seeded second at 3:29.58.