PHILADELPHIA – Texas A&M senior Isaac Spencer earned a coveted Penn Relays gold watch by winning the Championship 3,000-meter steeplechase after finishing second the past two years. Also in the evening distance events, when temperatures dipped into the low 40s at Franklin Field, Hillary Montgomery improved her career best by eight seconds as she finished sixth in the women's 5,000 meters.
On a day with temperatures barely reaching 50 degrees and a steady wind swirling through the stadium a crowd of 22,537 watched the first day of action at the 121st Penn Relay Carnival.
The Texas A&M women braved the chilly conditions, which limited their normal warm-up procedures, and advanced to the Championship of America finals in both the 4x100 and 4x400, but as the seventh and eighth qualifiers, respectively, among the top nine schools that qualified for each final.
“It was a good run for Spencer, but even in his race it was a matter of withstanding the elements,” stated Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “What a miserable day, weather-wise. It's really cold. Just to get on the track and advance both relays was a big part of the challenge, because nobody ran fast today in the relays.
“Warm-up area is not good here. It's a great meet, but if the weather is poor like it was today, then it makes it very, very difficult.”
A time of 8:59.94 in the steeplechase claimed the desired title for Spencer as he defeated Eric Rupe of Youngstown State (9:03.20), Kentucky's Mackay Wilson (9:03.70), Duncan Tomlin of Yale (9:04.26) and Kentucky's Spencer Hrycay (9:04.83).
The steeplechase field opened with splits of 69.4, 75.2, 74.6, 73.6, and 76.0 over first five laps as Spencer was stationed in second or third place on each circuit of the track. With two laps left Spencer put in a surge to quicken the pace and established a healthy 40m lead over the field. A split of 72.2 was followed by 68.5, and then Spencer closed the last half lap in 30.4 to wrap up his special victory.
“Tonight was definitely a lot colder than what I've experienced the past four years,” noted Spencer. “Coach and I talked about a race plan, we were both tired of getting second two years in a row, and I wanted to leave here with a gold watch. This was my last chance to do it.
“I was able to execute our race plan perfectly and it worked to perfection. Once I made my move it was pretty much all over. It was a good confidence boost for my next meets. Coming into this race I wasn't worried about time, I just wanted to win. When I made the surge I knew instantly I changed the pace a lot. Nobody was expecting me to take off with 800 meters left. I'm very thankful to finally get a gold watch.”
Montgomery ran 16:19.18 to establish an outdoor career best in the 5,000 meters after she set her previous career best of 16:27.11 in the 5,000 at Penn a year ago. Montgomery, who improved her time as the No. 4 performer on the A&M all-time list, was among the leaders for a majority of the race. She even led the field for a spell in the later stages before Penn State's Elizabeth Chikotas pulled away for a 16:05.46 victory.
Madeleine Davidson of Boston College (16:12.24) was runner-up with North Carolina State's Joanna Thompson (16:12.99) third. A&M's Grace Fletcher (16:47.41) and Karis Jochen (17:10.08) placed 24th and 27th among the field of 31.Ryan Miller finished 16th in the Championship 10,000 meters with a time of 30:32.83. Auburn's Ty McCormick won the race in 29:21.39. In the men's 5,000 meters Austin Wells clocked 14:46.36 to place 26th among a field of 32. The race was won by Kentucky's Robert Sandlin in 13:51.69 as he took over the SEC lead from Texas A&M's Cameron Villarreal (13:57.91).
Qualifying in the 4x100 became a risky proposition for the Aggie women, who have a string of six consecutive Penn Relays titles. Running the first heat the A&M foursome of Jennifer Madu, Ashton Purvis, Kamaria Brown and Aaliyah Brown won with a time of 46.48 seconds. Finishing behind the Aggies were Georgia State (46.74), Harvard (47.44) and Indiana Tech (47.45).Following heat winners included Cornell (46.72) as Oregon and Virginia did not finish, UTech of Jamaica (45.66) over South Carolina (46.18), Texas (45.59) defeated Hampton (46.36) and G.C. Foster (46.51), Oklahoma (46.20) bettered Houston (46.38) as LSU did not finish the final exchange, and Clemson (46.69) defeated Auburn (47.00).
With nine advancing to the Championship of America final on Friday from the field of 98 schools, the Aggies ended up seventh overall and benefitted from LSU and Oregon not finishing. Qualifying for the Championship of America final in the 4x100 were Texas, UTech, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Hampton, Houston, Texas A&M, G.C. Foster and Clemson.
Coming into this weekend the top three times among the collegiate ranks included Texas A&M (43.03), LSU (43.23) and Oregon (43.31).
The Aggie women were engaged in a close race in the prelims of the 4x400 and ended up second with a 3:44.03 behind Clemson (3:43.44) and ahead of LSU (3:44.46). Clemson ended up being seventh overall with A&M eighth among the nine schools advancing to Saturday's Championship final while LSU had the 10th best time and will run in the College final. The Aggies line-up included K. Brown, Olivia Ekponé, Ebony Crear and Shamier Little.
Advancing to the Championship final in the 4x400 were UTech (3:27.24), Duke (3:38.77), Texas (3:39.84), Oklahoma (3:41.77), Hampton (3:42.04), Florida State (3:42.26), Clemson, Texas A&M and Penn State (3:44.41).