Teams entered in the Classic include Boise State, BYU, Illinois State, Iowa State, Kansas State, Manhattan, Northern Arizona, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UTEP and Washington State while professional athletes, many of which are training at the World Athletics Center in Arizona, are included in a number of events. The meet has a mixture of open and premiere events.
A live webcast of the premiere division events will be available on Saturday starting at 8 p.m. CT on the Arizona State website (www.thesundevils.com). Results from the meet are available via www.FinishedResults.com.
Following an outdoor preseason ranking of No. 1 in the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association team computer rankings, the Aggie men and women each remained No. 1 in the updated version of the rankings this week.
Texas A&M returns seven winners from premiere division of the Sun Angel Classic last season. The Aggies also swept all four relay events a year ago.
For the Aggie men individual victories were posted by Shavez Hart (10.18) in the 100, Deon Lendore (44.90) in the 400, Hector Hernandez (1:48.66) in the 800, and Devin Bogert in the javelin (239-6). Wins for the A&M women were attained by Olivia Ekpone (11.35) in the 100, Ashton Purvis (22.95) in the 200 and Shamier Little in the 400 hurdles (56.55).
One Sun Angel Classic event offers a rare head-to-head for a pair of previous NCAA 400m champions as Lendore, the Bowerman Award winner in 2014, and teammate Bralon Taplin face defending Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada. The race, with Taplin in lane 4, James in lane 5 and Lendore in lane 6, is the first outdoor 400 venture for each sprinter this season.
It will be the first 400m race featuring Lendore and Kirani since April of 2010 when Kirani defeated Lendore at the Carifta Games held in the Cayman Islands by a 45.02 to 46.59 margin. James won the NCAA Outdoor title for Alabama in 2011 while Lendore swept NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles in 2014.
Defending NCAA discus champion Shelbi Vaughan's challenge comes from a pair of throwers from New Zealand, TeRina Keenan and Siositina Hakeai, who both have thrown over 195 feet. Also in the field is Northern Arizona's Julia Viberg, who finished second to Vaughan at Texas Relays a couple of weeks ago.
After Gregory Coleman and Little opened their campaign in the 400 hurdles with a pair of victories at Stanford, each will race over the barriers again this weekend. Coleman is in the same section of the men's race with Jeshua Anderson, former three-time NCAA champion from Washington State, while Little races Jennifer Grossarth, who has a career best of 55.51.
Hart's title defense in the 100 has him racing post collegians Joe Morris, who ran a windy 10.06 at the Texas Relays, and Ryan Milus, a former Sun Devil who sports a best of 10.19. In the 200m, Hart and Devin Jenkins race in separate sections for their first outdoor half-lap of the season. Hart's section includes South African Anaso Jobodwana, an Olympic and World Championship finalist who recently sped to a windy 19.87 victory at the Texas Relays.
Kamaria Brown and Aaliyah Brown race in the same section of the women's 200. For the women's 100, A. Brown is joined by Jennifer Madu and Ashton Purvis.
Devin Bogert returns as the defending winner of the Sun Angel javelin and he will be joined by team mate Sam Hardin as they face a challenge from Kyle Stevens of Washington State and UTEP's Rasmus Maukonen.
Hector Hernandez and Josh Hernandez are among an 800m field of 13 that includes three others who have career best marks in the 1:47 range. Cameron Villarreal and Isaac Spencer race in the mile amid a field of 15.
The Aggie women have five throwers in the premiere division of the javelin as they compete against A&M volunteer coach Ariana Ince. The crew competing for the Aggies includes Maggie Malone, Ashtin Zamzow, Jena Hemann, Kendall Munoz and Kristen Clark.
Olabanji Asekun, the Texas Relays long jump champion, returns to this event the weekend as he squares off against former A&M All-American Melvin Echard and former Razorback Raymond Higgs. Jennifer Madu and Jena Hemann contest the women's long jump for the Aggies. In the triple jump Latario Collie and Jeffrey Prothro square off against Josh Honeycutt, the 2014 USATF indoor champion.
In the men's pole vault the Aggie pair of Chase Wolfle and Audie Wyatt competes with professional Brad Walker, a former world champion and twice a NCAA Indoor winner, in the premiere division while Carl Johansson is in the open pole vault. The A&M trio of Emily Gunderson, Sara Kathryn Stevens, and Brittany Wooten are part of a field of 21 in the women's pole vault.
Brea Garrett represents A&M in a pair of premiere events, the shot put and hammer, while Dalton Rowan and Ben Skrla are in the premiere discus.