Improved performances continue for Aggies on second day of Tyson Invitational

Friday, February 12

Fayetteville, Ark.

All Day

Texas A&M

Tyson Invitational

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Feb 13, 2016 | Track and Field

FAYETTEVILLE – Another set of solid performances by the Aggies highlighted the second day of action at the Tyson Invitational hosted by Arkansas in the Randal Tyson Track Center, the same venue that will serve as host of the SEC Championships in two weeks.

"We had a great first day here and the second day was a good day as well," noted Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "We accomplished some good things today and I'm pleased with the group.

"Now we have time to recover before the conference meet here in two weeks. For the athletes who competed in events on the oval it was important for them to understand the track. It's a little different than our track and so you need to understand the oval."

Diamond Spaulding won her section of the Invitational 200m in 23.23 to place seventh overall. Her mark is equal No. 10 on the A&M all-time list as she matched the efforts of Allison George and Gabby Mayo from the 2009 NCAA Championships.

"I wasn't surprised with my time," noted Spaulding, whose improvement in the 200m has gone from 23.69 in December to 23.47 in her five previous meets. "In practice I like to train really hard, because in each meet I want to PR and keep dropping my times down."

One of three freshmen in the Invitational division that included 16 sprinters, Spaulding produced the best time among that trio. Heading into this weekend the top mark by a frosh sprinter was 23.37.

"I just listen to my coach and my teammates as I'm coming up to the second curve," said Spaulding. "It helps running on this track before conference. Now I'm familiar with it and all the lanes, so it should be easy to run here during conference."

Henry added: "That was a tremendous run for Diamond. She is young, a freshman, and to run that fast in the 200 this early in the season is a good sign of what she is capable of doing."

The Aggies produced a pair of victories in the distance medley relay with the men running 9:48.41 and the women turning in a time of 11:54.95.

In the men's relay race the A&M foursome included Ryan Teel (3:01.08), Donavan Brazier (46.97), Gaines Kinsey (1:51.55) and Alex Riba (4:08.81). The Aggies, with a time that is No. 13 on the A&M all-time list, finished ahead of Missouri's 9:57.31 and a 9:57.77 by Nebraska.

The women's relay crew included Jazmine Fray (3:35.61), Glorilisha Carter (57.52), Katie Willard (2:12.31) and Arin Rice (5:09.51).

"There really wasn't much competition in the distance medley relays," said Henry. "But we found out some things about our people inside of the DMRs and that's what we have to do."

Stern competition in the Invitational 4x400 relays had the Aggie men finishing fourth and the A&M women placing seventh overall.

A season best time of 3:06.73 placed the Aggie men second to Texas Tech's 3:04.98 in one of three sections contested. The A&M crew included Robert Grant (47.58), Deon Hickey (46.23), Fred Kerley (46.01) and Eric Age (46.92).

Texas posted the top time of 3:04.41, clipping the previous collegiate best this season of 3:04.46 by LSU. Tech's time was second best overall with a 3:05.35 by Arkansas third ahead of the Aggies. Baylor ran 3:04.83 in the same section as Texas and Arkansas, but they were disqualified.

The A&M women were runner-up to LSU (3:34.42) in one section with a time of 3:34.90 as the two squads placed sixth and seventh overall. The Aggie foursome included Krystal Sparling (54.38), Shamier Little (53.04), Jarra Owens (54.03) and Briyahna Desrosiers (53.46).

Texas set the collegiate leading mark for 2016 in posting a 3:27.94 with USC runner-up in 3:28.82. The rest of the top five schools included Arkansas (3:32.27), Kentucky (3:32.51) and Miami (3:34.04).

Jeff Bartlett advanced to the finals of the shot put with a mark of 56-4 ½ (17.18) in round three and then improved to a career best of 56-8 (17.27) in the final round to place seventh amid a field of 28 throwers. Lindon Victor produced a mark of 45-3 ½ (13.80).

Brittany Wooten cleared 13-1 ½ (4.00) in placing seventh in the pole vault and attempted 13-7 ¼ (4.15), which would have surpassed her indoor best of 13-6 ¼ (4.12) she set at the SEC Championships in 2014. Emily Gunderson tied for ninth with a 12-7 ½ clearance while Sara Kathryn Stevens cleared 12-1 ½ (3.70) to place 16^th.

Edward Davis posted an improvement of 21.33 to win a section of the men's college 200m and placed fifth overall while teammate Elijah Morrow won another section in 21.42 and finished ninth overall. Krystal Sparling clocked 23.75 as a section winner and she was eighth overall in the college division of the women's 200m.

A leap of 50-0 ¾ (15.26) placed Jeffrey Prothro fourth in the triple jump. Sam McSwain and Garrett Cragin each cleared 6-7 in the high jump. McSwain was in a three-way tie for sixth place while Cragin tied for 10^th place.