Texas A&M
Arizona State Sun Angel Classic
Bralon Taplin sets collegiate leading 400 at Sun Angel Classic
Apr 12, 2015 | Track and Field
TEMPE, Arizona – Aggie senior Bralon Taplin posted a collegiate leading time of 44.89 seconds in the 400 meters as he challenged defending Olympic champion Kirani James in the premiere 400 meters on Saturday at the 36th Sun Angel Classic while A&M's Deon Lendore finished third in 45.18.
As James established a world leading mark in his season debut, Taplin and Lendore posted the top two collegiate times so far in the 2015 season in the first outdoor 400 for either sprinter. The A&M pair rank third and fifth on the current world list. Taplin is now the No. 6 performer with the No. 7 performance on the Aggie all-time list.
James started in lane five with Taplin on his inside in lane four and Lendore on the outside in lane six. At the 200m mark James had closed the stagger on Lendore. Completing the final curve, Taplin closed the gap to James to offer a challenge over the final 90m. James eased ahead by a couple of strides to the finish while Taplin held his edge over Lendore.
“I went into the race as an underdog,” noted Taplin. “The race was billed as Kirani vs. Lendore, so there was no pressure on me. My goal was to win and I thought I had the race at 300m. I kicked pretty hard, but then Kirani kicked hard to pull away. I wanted to win, and I was going for the win.
“I'm happy that I ran that fast, I've been waiting to run 44 for a long time, so feels good to finally run it.”
The world leading 400m time heading into this weekend was 44.68 by Qatar's Abdalelah Haroun and the collegiate leading mark was 45.19 by Florida's Najee Glass.
Earlier in the meet the Aggie women posted a world leading time of 43.03 in the 4x100 relay from the foursome of Jennifer Madu, Ashton Purvis, Kamaria Brown and Aaliyah Brown. A&M defeated Arizona State (44.82), UTEP (45.06) and Northern Arizona (46.18).
The previous world leading 4x100 heading into this weekend was a 43.13 by Jamaica's University of Technology set at the Gipson Relays in Kingston during February while the collegiate leader was 43.31 by Oregon.
In the men's 4x100 the Aggies ran 39.24 as runner-up to a 39.21 produced by a professional quartet from the World Athletics Center. The field also included Central Arizona (39.80) in third with Arizona State (40.13) fourth. A&M's foursome included Devin Jenkins, Shavez Hart, Taplin and Gregory Coleman.
Shelbi Vaughan notched another discus victory in Arizona as her 192-7 (58.70) topped New Zealand's Siositina Hakeai (185-0) and Maggie Ewen of Arizona State (175-3) while Northern Arizona's Julia Viberg (172-7) finished fourth. The series for Vaughan included 189-9 (57.84), 192-7 (58.70), 192-3 (58.61), foul, foul, 169-7 (51.69).
Devin Bogert defended his javelin title with a winning distance of 234-5 (71.47) to better a 230-9 (70.35) from UTEP's Rasmus Maukonen.
Another sweep of the 400 hurdles was turned in by Shamier Little and Gregory Coleman. Little ran 56.43 to finish ahead of Ashante Little, who challenged with a 56.69. Coleman clocked 50.22 for the men's victory over a 50.66 from Boise State's Jordin Andrade as Aggie teammate Aikan Graham posted a career best of 51.57 to place sixth.
Latario Collie produced a mark of 52-10 (16.10) to finish as the top collegian in the triple jump, missing the win by three-quarters of an inch to the 52-10 ¾ (16.12) supplied by Josh Honeycutt. A&M's Jeffrey Prothro finished fourth with a 50-4 ¾ (15.36) behind Arizona State's Josh Dixon (51-1 ¾).
Kamaria Brown claimed the women's 200 in 23.01 with Aaliyah Brown third at 23.31. Earlier in the 100 A. Brown posted an 11.47 as runner-up to the 11.21 from Muna Lee. A&M's Ashton Purvis ran 11.61 to place sixth.
Shavez Hart clocked 20.58 for third place in the men's 200 behind a 20.39 by Anaso Jobodwana and a 20.43 from Joe Morris while Jeremy Dodson finished fourth in 20.59.
Texas A&M volunteer assistant Ariana Ince won the women's javelin with a throw of 181-3 (55.26) and she was followed by five Aggies in places 2-4-5-6-7. Leading the A&M crew was Maggie Malone (162-10) followed by Ashtin Zamzow (153-6), Jena Hemann (151-3), Kristen Clark (149-0) and Kendall Munoz (143-5).
A 4:02.49 mile placed Cameron Villarreal second to a 4:02.18 by Alex Genest as teammate Isaac Spencer ran 4:03.37 in fourth place. Villarreal is the current U.S. and collegiate leader in the outdoor mile for 2015.
Over 800 meters, Hector Hernandez ran 1:48.27 for third place following a 1:45.78 from Shaquille Walker of BYU and a 1:46.16 by Boris Berian. Josh Hernandez posted 1:49.06 in fifth place. In the open 800 Efrain Hernandez finished third in 1:50.94 while Gaines Kinsey placed seventh with a 1:52.13.
In the premiere women's long jump Jennifer Madu finished second with a 20-5 ¾ (6.24) that had her finishing as the top collegian. Meanwhile, a mark of 25-2 ¾ (7.69) by Olabanji Asekun placed third overall in the men's long jump while he finished as the top collegian.
A career best of 52-7 ¼ (16.03) placed Brea Garrett fourth in the shot put where she was the second best collegian. Dalton Rowan threw the discus 178-4 (54.37) to finish fifth and third best collegian in the premiere division while teammate Ben Skrla had a 173-4 (52.84) to place sixth as the fourth best collegian.
In open events Elijah Morrow swept the 100 and 200 titles with times of 10.69 and 21.16. In the 100 he bettered a 10.78 by Isak Washington of UTEP while a 21.159 reading topped the 21.160 by James Fisher of Northern Arizona from another section.
A&M's Jeff Bartlett and Kyle Long of Arizona State traded close victories in the shot put and discus. Bartlett reached a distance of 174-2 (53.08) to win the open division of the discus over a 173-4 (52.83) by Long. In the open shot put Long (55-3 ½) edged Bartlett's best of 55-3 (16.84) by half an inch.
Audie Wyatt claimed the open pole vault with a 16-10 ¾ (5.15) clearance as former A&M track and field athlete Chad Stoermer place third with a 16-0 ¾ (4.90). In the women's pole vault a clearance of 12-7 ½ (3.85) was attained by Sara Kathryn Stevens and Brittany Wooten as they tied for sixth place.
Players Mentioned
