AUSTIN – A win in the distance medley relay combined with a pair of triple jump victories highlighted the third day of action for Texas A&M in the 88th Texas Relays at Myers Stadium.
Isaac Spencer anchored the Aggie distance medley relay with a 4:04.2 split on the 1,600m leg as they won in 9:38.99 over Texas Tech (9:40.12), UTEP (9:40.14) and Texas (9:40.71).
“It's my senior year so I guess it's always good to leave when you're on top,” stated Spencer. “It's nice because it's like a home meet for us. Everybody's family and friends get to see us run. It's a good atmosphere for our family to come watch us run.”
A&M's line-up, which included four Texas natives, started off with Cameron Villarreal on the 1,200m leg where he split 2:57.9 with the Aggies in third place. Josh Hernandez split 47.3 on the 400m leg, keeping A&M in third behind Texas and Texas Tech.
Gaines Kinsey moved the Aggies from third to first on his 1:49.6 carry over 800m and handed off the baton to Spencer with Texas, Texas Tech and UTEP in close quarters.
Texas reclaimed the lead for a couple of laps on the anchor leg with Craig Lutz, but Spencer timed his kick and moved in front of the Longhorn with 250m left in the race. Spencer then cruised to the finish line for the win.
“Once Craig passed me I knew I could keep up with him,” noted Spencer. “I knew he didn't want it to be slow, because he doesn't have one of the better kicks. I just stayed with him until I was ready to go. I was going to be sure when I started my kick I wanted to take it all the way to the finish line.”
It was only the second time in the history of the meet that Texas A&M has won the event, following a 9:35.36 school record victory in 2012.
The first Aggie victory came from sophomore Jeffrey Prothro in the B division of the triple jump as he produced a career best of 50-8 ¾ (15.46) to better a field of 15 jumpers.
Then Latario Collie won the A division of the triple jump with a mark of 54-8 ¾ (16.68) to make it an Aggie sweep. Collie's mark is the No. 2 performer and No. 6 performance on the A&M all-time list behind Julian Reid's school record of 55-8 ½ (16.98).
“This is my first Texas Relays, so things went pretty good,” said Collie, the 2014 NJCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion in the triple jump. “Coming back from indoor nationals it's good to get myself back on the map again.”
Collie opened with a 52-9 ¼ in the first round and hit his big mark in round two. Then a set of four fouls followed. The 54-8 ¾ (wind 1.2) is the second best mark by Collie during outdoor competition, trailing a massive leap of 55-5 ¾ (16.91) he produced last year in winning the Kansas Relays.
“Watching Prothro win the other triple jump gave me confidence, because we practice together,” noted Collie. “I teach him some things and he teaches me some things as well. It gave me the confidence to jump far.
“The competition today was good, and it included a lot of guys I knew. This is the best I've ever started outdoors so far, so it's going to be nice season.”
Finishing behind Collie in the triple jump were Chris Carter (53-9 ¾), South Florida's Matthew O'Neal (53-8 ½), Felix Obi of Baylor (53-3 ½) and Mark Jackson (52-0 ¾).
A first round mark of 49-3 by Prothro claimed the early lead and he maintained it throughout the competition. In round two Prothro improved to 49-8 ½ and then went 50-6 ¾ in the third stanza after a challenge from David Oluwadara of Boston University, who briefly took the lead at 50-0 ¾ and finished second overall with that mark.
“I wanted to get out and take the lead,” said Prothro. “I kind of like it when guys have to chase me, so getting out in front early is always a good thing. I was able to relax and jump how I like to jump instead of chasing a distance.”
Following a foul in round four, Prothro hit his winning distance of 50-8 ¾ in round five and closed out the event with a 49-10 on his final attempt.
“It's all about improvement and competing against myself,” noted Prothro. “I compete against myself first and then the competition. It's great to get outdoors and to the Texas Relays, which is a great meet. It was a great day to compete and I'm happy with my performance today.
“This is really encouraging, it's only March and I've already matched my PR from last season. I'm starting early and looking forward to improving every meet.”
Collie and Prothro picked up the fourth and fifth Texas Relays triple jump titles for the Aggies since 2009 and A&M's first B division win. Previous Aggie winners included Julian Reid in 2009 (54-8 ¾w) and 2011 (53-11 ¾) as well as Zuheir Sharif in 2010 (54-3 ¼).
Last season, Prothro placed ninth in the B division of the Texas Relays with a 48-11 ½ distance. During the course of the outdoor season in his freshman campaign, Prothro established a wind-aided best of 50-8 ¼ (15.45) and a legal best of 50-2 ¾ (15.31). He went on to place ninth in the SEC Championships as well as the USATF Junior Championships.
Sprint medley action had the Aggie foursome of Jeremy Jordan, Elijah Morrow, Gregory Coleman and Hector Hernandez challenging the A&M school record of 3:15.10 set back in 1988. Jordan and Morrow each had 200m legs before handing off to Coleman for a 400m stretch.
Coleman split 45.5 on his carry with the Aggies in second place behind Baylor. Hernandez was stationed in second place for the majority of his 800m carry with the Bears holding an edge over the field. With 200m remaining the gap closed on Baylor with BYU and LSU challenging for the lead.
BYU moved to the front of the pack with 100m left with Baylor in second and A&M third. As BYU secured the victory in 3:14.74, Hernandez managed to pass Baylor's anchor leg in the final two strides of the race for the runner-up position.
The Aggies posted a time of 3:15.80 as Hernandez split 1:47.6 on this carry while Baylor finished third in 3:15.99 followed by Texas Tech (3:17.28) and LSU (3:17.73). Texas A&M won this event in 2011 with a 3:15.18 clocking.
In the women's distance medley relay the Aggies threatened another school record with an 11:26.60 performance for fourth place. The A&M school record is 11:26.06 from 2001.
The relay crew consisted of Grace Fletcher (3:34.1), Ebony Crear (55.0), Katie Willard (2:10.4) and Hillary Montgomery (4:47.1). The Aggies were in seventh place for the first three legs and Montgomery was able to move into fourth place on the last lap of the race.
Baylor clocked 11:18.80 for the win over Oklahoma State's 11:19.3 with Kansas third at 11:21.69. Finishing behind A&M were Texas (11:29.06) and UNLV (11:31.60).
Texas A&M men's 4x100 relay led qualifying with a time of 39.49 as Deon Lendore passed TCU in the final stages of the prelim race for the heat victory. TCU finished second in 39.54 and posted the second best qualifying time. The first three legs of the Aggie 4x100 included Gregory Coleman, Shavez Hart and Bralon Taplin.
The rest of the field qualifying for the Saturday finals included LSU (39.58), Baylor (39.82), Clemson (40.11), South Plains (40.12), West Texas College (40.24), Auburn (40.43) and UT-Arlington (40.55).
Texas A&M women won their heat of the 4x100 in 44.26 to post the second fastest qualifying time behind a 44.01 by Texas. The other finalists included LSU (44.74), Purdue (44.97), Louisiana Tech (45.25), UNLV (45.68), Notre Dame (45.70), Clemson (45.75) and Texas Tech (45.75).
Javelin competition for the Aggies had Ioannis Kyriazis finishing fourth in the men's event with a best of 226-8 (69.10) while teammate Devin Bogert placed eighth with a 223-1 (68.01). Maggie Malone finished seventh in the women's event with a toss of 166-5 (50.73), which moved her to No. 8 on the Aggie all-time list.
The B division of the women's pole vault had Emily Gunderson tying for fourth with a clearance of 13-1 ½ (4.00), which moved her to equal No. 4 on the A&M all-time list with Aly Daily and current teammate Sara Kathryn Stevens. Misses at 13-7 ¼ (4.15) knocked out Gunderson, who finished in a three-way tie for fourth place.
A clearance of 12-7 ½ (3.85) had Stevens finishing in a four-way tie for 10th place, while Brittany Wooten missed the opening height.
Sam McSwain cleared 6-11 (2.11) in the B division of the high jump to place fifth while Garrett Cragin missed at the opening height of 6-7. McSwain needed three attempts at 6-7 and 6-11 while getting over 6-9 on his first try.
Jena Hemann contested the high jump after her record performance in the heptathlon on Thursday and was involved in a seven-way tie for seventh place in clearing 5-7 ¼ (1.71) in the B division.
Aikan Graham ran 52.23 from lane one to place ninth in the 400 hurdles. Michael Stigler of Kansas won the race in 48.44 to break the Myers Stadium record of 48.65 set by Jeshua Anderson of Washington State in 2010.
Prelims in the 100 meters produced three finalists for the Aggies with Shavez Hart winning his heat in 10.39 while Aaliyah Brown (11.69) and Jennifer Madu (11.54) each finished second in their respective heats of the women's 100.
Running in the prelims of the 100 hurdles were A&M's heptathlon pair of Ashtin Zamzow (14.63) and Shaina Burns (15.66).