STANFORD, Calif. – Texas A&M makes a return visit to the Stanford Invitational this weekend following another successful outing at the Texas Relays. The west coast trip will include a distance carnival on Friday evening of the two-day meet.
A webcast of the meet, which includes 110 colleges, is available via a subscription service with Flotrack.org. Live results will be available through the following link: http://www.rtspt.com/events/stanford/invite2015/.
Aggies in action amid the distance events held on Friday evening include Isaac Spencer in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Cameron Villarreal in the 5,000 meters while Ryan Miller and Austin Wells contest the 10,000 meters. In the women's distance events the 10,000 meters will include Grace Fletcher, Hillary Montgomery and Karis Jochen.
Both Shamier Little and Gregory Coleman are scheduled to compete in their first races in the 400-meter hurdles this season. Little is the defending NCAA champion and she posted a 57.58 victory in the Stanford Invitational last season. Coleman enters the season as the defending SEC champion.
Individual races in the sprints will include Shavez Hart in the 100, Deon Lendore in the 200 as well as Deon Hickey in the 400. For the A&M women Aaliyah Brown, Olivia Ekpone and Ashton Purvis are scheduled to race in the 200.
Middle distance events will have a crew of five Aggies in the men's 800 with Hector Hernandez, Josh Hernandez, Gaines Kinsey, Efrain Hernandez and Cameron Cardwell while racing at 1,500 meters are Alex Riba and Ian Cazares. The A&M women have Katie Willard and Karina Buerk in the 800 and Laura Craig in the 1,500.
In field events the Aggie jumpers switch events this weekend as Texas Relays long jump champion Olabanji Asekun will triple jump at Stanford while Latario Collie, the Texas Relays triple jump champion, his twin brother Lathone Collie and Jeffrey Prothro, who won a B division triple jump in Austin, are long jumping this weekend. Jennifer Madu is entered in the women's long jump.
Collegiate and U.S. discus leader Shelbi Vaughan will face a field of 12 throwers in the Invitational discus, which includes the Stanford pair of Valarie Allman, who ranks fourth collegiately this season with a 183-4, and Rebecca Hammer, who has a season best of 176-1. Vaughan will also compete in the hammer this weekend with teammate Carissa van Beek in the collegiate division.
Other throwing events have Brea Garrett in the Invitational section of the hammer, along with teammate Alison Ondrusek, and in the shot put. Maggie Malone and Kendall Munoz throw in the Invitational section of the javelin. For the A&M men Dalton Rowan and Ben Skrla contest the Invitational discus, Jeff Bartlett is in the shot put and collegiate discus, Austin Cook throws the hammer, while Ioannis Kyriazis and Devin Bogert are in the javelin.
A trio of Aggie men will be in the Invitational section of the pole vault with Chase Wolfle, Carl Johansson and Audie Wyatt while Sara Kathryn Stevens competes in the women's Invitational pole vault with Emily Gunderson in the collegiate division. Sam McSwain and Garrett Cragin are in the men's high jump while a trio of heptathletes – Jena Hemann, Shaina Burns and Ashtin Zamzow – joins Kara Erickson in the women's high jump.
SEC runner-up Spencer will race in the first section of the steeplechase along with defending Big 10 champion Jackson Neff of Ohio State. Also in the race is former Indiana Hoosier Andy Bayer, a NCAA finalist in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters, who made his debut in the steeplechase during the 2014 season where he placed seventh in the U.S. Championships and set a PR of 8:25.71 in Europe.
Villarreal races in the third section of the 5,000 meters which includes a mixture of runners from the Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12 and another entrant from the SEC in Tennessee's Austin Whitelaw. Miller and Wells are both in the second section of the 10,000 meters.
On the women's side the first section of the 10,000 meters includes Fletcher and Montgomery while Jochen races in section two. Scheduled to run in section one is NCAA cross country champion Kate Avery of Iona, Tennessee's Chelsea Blaase, Rachel Johnson of Baylor, and Dominique Scott of Arkansas.