STARKVILLE, Mississippi – Texas A&M junior Shelbi Vaughan launched the discus 211 feet, 8 inches in securing a third consecutive SEC title and broke her championship meet record of 208-8 set last season as she dominated the event by 24 feet on Friday during the second day of the SEC Championships hosted by Mississippi State.
The 10 points from Vaughan improved the Aggie team score to 37 points through eight of 21 events completed. Arkansas leads with 58.5 points followed by Georgia (46) and A&M with Kentucky (32) and Alabama (31.5) rounding out the top five.
With seven of 21 events scored on the men's side Florida leads with 50 points over Georgia (47), Arkansas (36), Kentucky (27) and Texas A&M (24).
Vaughan improved her Aggie school record in the process of moving to No. 5 on the all-time collegiate list and becoming the No. 4 American collegian. For the 2015 season Vaughan is currently No. 8 on the world list and the American leader as she surpassed a mark of 206-4 by Whitney Ashley.
"I'm really excited about it," exclaimed Vaughan. "People keep asking me what my goal is for this season and what I'm going to throw today. I tell them my goal is for you guys to help me to get over 200 feet. For myself I have personal goals, which I'll still keep secrete since I have two more collegiate meets this year.
"With the wind I was hitting it really good and it helped me out a lot. Normally I don't know how to throw in the wind, but I think I did pretty well today. I came in wanting to break my SEC meet record. It's really great to win a third consecutive title, not many people can say that and I have one more year to go to get a complete set of wins."
The series for Vaughan, as winds picked amid an overcast sky, included marks of 158-10 (48.41), 201-9 (61.49), foul, foul, 205-11 (62.76) and 211-8 (64.52). Following the improved school record, her mark of 205-11 is the No. 3 performance and her 201-9 is the No. 5 performance on the Aggie all-time list.
Finishing behind Vaughan were a pair of Kentucky throwers in Beckie Famurewa (187-5) and Madison Jacobs (183-10) with Auburn's Rachel Dincoff (183-1) fourth.
"I was just really focusing on my form," noted Vaughan. "That's what I've been working on the past couple of weeks, getting out of the back of the ring soon and going down the middle on everything. My finish is pretty good I think."
The Aggie men picked up six points in the long jump as Latario Collie placed fourth with a windy leap of 25-2 ½ (7.68) and Olabanji Asekun finished seventh with a wind-aided 24-7 ¼ (7.50). Florida finished 1-3 with the combination of Marquis Dendy (26-10 ½w) and KeAndre Bates (26-1 ¾w) with Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas (26-3) in second.
In reaching a total of 5,842 points Jena Hemann produced her second best score as an Aggie in placing fifth for the third time in four seasons at the conference meet. Hemann finished fourth in the SEC last season (5,471) and was fifth in 2013 SEC meet (5,378) and fifth in the 2012 Big 12 conference (5,285).
"It was pretty awesome to be part of this heptathlon with five athletes who have scored over 6,000 points," noted Hemann. "Getting to compete with that caliber of athlete is a great opportunity. I'm blessed to have this opportunity.
"I did better in some areas and worse in some others, so if I can just get all the good ones in at one meet that would be fantastic."
Aggie frosh Ashtin Zamzow generated a career best score of 5,482 to place ninth, missing out on a scoring place by 49 points behind the eighth place finisher, as she moves to No. 6 on the A&M all-time list with the No. 10 performance. Shaina Burns placed 12th with 4,800 points.
The SEC meet record was bettered by the top two finishers as Mississippi State's Erica Bougard produced a winning score of 6,250 points to take over the collegiate lead for 2015 as Kendell Williams of Georgia placed second at 6,003 points.
Hemann's second day included a 19-1 ¼ long jump for 795 points, and she topped the field in the javelin with a 155-2 toss for 808 points. She wrapped up the heptathlon with a 2:21.22 in the 800m for 807 points.
Zamzow's career best score included marks of 14.22 (947) in the 100 hurdles, 5-7 (855) in the high jump, 38-3 ½ (639) in the shot put and a 25.20 (869) on the first day. Her second day started with a 17-2 ¼ (626) long jump and the second best javelin mark at 150-3 (779) before closing with a 2:24.19 (767) in the 800. Zamzow's previous best in the heptathlon was 5,231 from March of this season.
Hemann also competed in the open high jump following the heptathlon, clearing 5-7 for 12th place. Teammate Kara Erickson cleared the same height and fewer misses placed her sixth for three points.
Jennifer Madu just missed scoring for the Aggies in the women's long jump as she placed ninth with a mark of 20-3 ¾ while Taylor Stolt finished 15th (19-3 ¼).
Daniel Martin finished 10th in the decathlon with 6,865 points. He closed out the event by winning the 1,500 in 4:15.50 after winning the 400 in 48.44 to finish day one.
Qualifying went well for A&M as Deon Lendore posted a season best of 44.88 to win his heat of the 400 and Bralon Taplin joined him in the final with a 46.42 that placed him third in his heat. Lendore's time is No. 8 on the current world list. He led qualifying to the final over Vernon Norwood of LSU (45.55) and Alfred Larry of Mississippi State (45.93).
Shavez Hart won his heat of the 100 in a wind-aided 10.15, which was fourth best behind LSU's tandem of Aaron Ernest (10.09) and Tremayne Acy (10.12) as well as Jalen Miller of Mississippi (10.13). In the women's 100 Aaliyah Brown clocked the second best time among the prelim with an 11.24 behind a windy 11.23 for Kentucky's Dezerea Bryant.
Madu ran 11.40 as runner-up in her heat of 100, but didn't advance on time, as Olivia Ekpone and Ashton Purvis clocked times of 11.56 and 11.58. In the men's 100 Devin Jenkins posted a 10.34 that was 12th best overall while Elijah Morrow ran 10.59.
Cameron Villarreal ran 3:49.58 to place 15th overall among the prelim for the 1,500 as the top 12 advanced to the final. The lone track final for the Aggies on Friday had Isaac Spencer placing 16th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:39.57.
Jeff Bartlett (51-2 ¾) placed 15th in the shot put while Emily Gunderson (12-8) finished 13th in the pole vault. Brittany Wooten and Sara Kathryn Stevens each had a no height in the vault.