Hernandez, Little advance to finals, Aggie men score five points on first day of NCAA Indoor
Mar 11, 2016 | Track and Field
BIRMINGHAM – Texas A&M's first day at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the Crossplex facility produced five points for the No. 4 Aggie men from a pair of finals. In qualifying races, Hector Hernandez won his heat of the men's 800m while Shamier Little finished second in her heat of the 400m as both advanced to Saturday's final.
A sore back for Donavan Brazier prevented him from finishing the 800m prelim race he ran with Hernandez, stopping before the halfway point on his third circuit of the 200m track after splitting 51.59 at 400m behind leader Hernandez (51.40).
In Friday finals, the Aggie trio in the pole vault finished 6th-9th-11th, scoring three points with Audie Wyatt leading the group. Wyatt and Jacob Wooten both cleared 17-6 ½ (5.35) with Wyatt making it on his second attempt while Wooten cleared on his third try. Chase Wolfle made the opening height of 17-2 ¾ (5.25) on his second attempt.
Washington's Jax Thoirs won the pole vault title with an 18-0 ½ (5.50) clearance while South Alabama's Sean Collins claimed runner-up at 17-10 ½ (5.45). There was a tie for third, at 17-6 ½, between Devin King of Southeast Louisiana and Virginia Tech's Deakin Volz.
In the men's long jump, Will Williams opened with a leap of 25-2 (7.67) and led the field of 16 jumpers through the first round. That mark served as Williams best effort through the remainder of his series and he placed seventh overall to pick up two points for A&M.
Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas won the event with a mark of 26-1 (7.95) ahead of NC State's Jonathan Addison (26-0 ¼) and Stefan Brits of Florida State (25-4 ½).
Little clocked a 52.50 as runner-up in the final heat of the women's 400m, finishing behind a 52.35 for Notre Dame's Margaret Bamgbose. Little's time ranked fifth among the top eight times advancing to the final. Leading the qualifiers was Courtney Okolo of Texas with a 52.02. SEC champion Taylor Ellis-Watson won another section in 52.52, which was sixth best among the prelim times.
After watching the first section of the men's 800 won in 1:46.92 by Akron's Clayton Murphy, Hernandez led the second heat through splits of 25.11, 26.29 [51.40], 27.94 [1:19.34], and 28.30 for a final time of 1:47.64.
Runner-up to Hernandez was Penn State's Brannon Kidder in 1:47.76 with Minnesota's Goaner Deng third in 1:47.98. Not advancing from the first heat was SEC runner-up Andres Arroyo of Florida, who placed eighth in 1:50.66.
Through the first day of the men's heptathlon, Lindon Victor is in sixth place with 3,315 points as he trails the leader by 212 points. The first day leader is Georgia's Garrett Scantling with 3,527 points followed by Wisconsin's Zach Ziemek with 3,504.
Victor started off with a 7.00 clocking in the 60 meters, just off his best of 6.99. In the long jump, though, he fell off pace a bit with a 22-8 ½ (6.92) effort, which was over a foot behind his 23-11 ½ (7.30) from the SEC meet. That resulted in a drop of 91 points.
In the shot put, Victor opened with a 51-1 ½ (15.58) to score 825 points, bringing his total to 2,502. Then he added 813 points in the high jump with a clearance of 6-7 (2.01). The heptathlon continues on Saturday with the 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m.
Also competing on Saturday is Latario Collie in the triple jump as well as the Aggie 4x400 relay.
Devin Jenkins just missed the cutoff time of 21.09 to reach the final in the 200m with a 21.10 that placed him third in the final of four heats. Tennessee's Christian Coleman led the qualifiers with a 20.63 over a 20.64 from LSU's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Texas A&M's tandem of Diamond Spaulding (23.40) and Aaliyah Brown (23.46) ran in the same prelim heat of the women's 200m, placing third and fourth. They finished 11th and 12th overall with the cutoff time to reach the final a 23.27. Jennifer Madu ran 7.33 for fifth place in her heat of the 60m, finishing 12th overall. The cutoff to reach the final on time was 7.27.
Georgia's Kendell Williams improved her collegiate record in the pentathlon to 4,703 points as she claimed a third consecutive NCAA title in the event. Runner-up was Taliyah Brooks of Arkansas (4,432) with USC's Amalie Iuel third (4,425).
A&M's Annie Kunz did not finish the pentathlon after three fouls left her with zero points in the fourth event of the five contested. That dropped Kunz out of scoring contention as she went from third place to 15th following the long jump. Kunz then didn't start the final event, the 800m.
Kunz set a personal best of 8.44 for 1,030 points in the 60m hurdles to open the pentathlon. Her previous best was an 8.51. In the high jump Kunz cleared 5-9 ¾ (1.77) to add 941 points to her score. Another career best followed in the shot put as Kunz hit a mark of 43-4 ¼ (13.21) on her first attempt for 741 points. Through three events Kunz was stationed in third place with 2,712 points.
A sore back for Donavan Brazier prevented him from finishing the 800m prelim race he ran with Hernandez, stopping before the halfway point on his third circuit of the 200m track after splitting 51.59 at 400m behind leader Hernandez (51.40).
In Friday finals, the Aggie trio in the pole vault finished 6th-9th-11th, scoring three points with Audie Wyatt leading the group. Wyatt and Jacob Wooten both cleared 17-6 ½ (5.35) with Wyatt making it on his second attempt while Wooten cleared on his third try. Chase Wolfle made the opening height of 17-2 ¾ (5.25) on his second attempt.
Washington's Jax Thoirs won the pole vault title with an 18-0 ½ (5.50) clearance while South Alabama's Sean Collins claimed runner-up at 17-10 ½ (5.45). There was a tie for third, at 17-6 ½, between Devin King of Southeast Louisiana and Virginia Tech's Deakin Volz.
In the men's long jump, Will Williams opened with a leap of 25-2 (7.67) and led the field of 16 jumpers through the first round. That mark served as Williams best effort through the remainder of his series and he placed seventh overall to pick up two points for A&M.
Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas won the event with a mark of 26-1 (7.95) ahead of NC State's Jonathan Addison (26-0 ¼) and Stefan Brits of Florida State (25-4 ½).
Little clocked a 52.50 as runner-up in the final heat of the women's 400m, finishing behind a 52.35 for Notre Dame's Margaret Bamgbose. Little's time ranked fifth among the top eight times advancing to the final. Leading the qualifiers was Courtney Okolo of Texas with a 52.02. SEC champion Taylor Ellis-Watson won another section in 52.52, which was sixth best among the prelim times.
After watching the first section of the men's 800 won in 1:46.92 by Akron's Clayton Murphy, Hernandez led the second heat through splits of 25.11, 26.29 [51.40], 27.94 [1:19.34], and 28.30 for a final time of 1:47.64.
Runner-up to Hernandez was Penn State's Brannon Kidder in 1:47.76 with Minnesota's Goaner Deng third in 1:47.98. Not advancing from the first heat was SEC runner-up Andres Arroyo of Florida, who placed eighth in 1:50.66.
Through the first day of the men's heptathlon, Lindon Victor is in sixth place with 3,315 points as he trails the leader by 212 points. The first day leader is Georgia's Garrett Scantling with 3,527 points followed by Wisconsin's Zach Ziemek with 3,504.
Victor started off with a 7.00 clocking in the 60 meters, just off his best of 6.99. In the long jump, though, he fell off pace a bit with a 22-8 ½ (6.92) effort, which was over a foot behind his 23-11 ½ (7.30) from the SEC meet. That resulted in a drop of 91 points.
In the shot put, Victor opened with a 51-1 ½ (15.58) to score 825 points, bringing his total to 2,502. Then he added 813 points in the high jump with a clearance of 6-7 (2.01). The heptathlon continues on Saturday with the 60m hurdles, pole vault and 1,000m.
Also competing on Saturday is Latario Collie in the triple jump as well as the Aggie 4x400 relay.
Devin Jenkins just missed the cutoff time of 21.09 to reach the final in the 200m with a 21.10 that placed him third in the final of four heats. Tennessee's Christian Coleman led the qualifiers with a 20.63 over a 20.64 from LSU's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Texas A&M's tandem of Diamond Spaulding (23.40) and Aaliyah Brown (23.46) ran in the same prelim heat of the women's 200m, placing third and fourth. They finished 11th and 12th overall with the cutoff time to reach the final a 23.27. Jennifer Madu ran 7.33 for fifth place in her heat of the 60m, finishing 12th overall. The cutoff to reach the final on time was 7.27.
Georgia's Kendell Williams improved her collegiate record in the pentathlon to 4,703 points as she claimed a third consecutive NCAA title in the event. Runner-up was Taliyah Brooks of Arkansas (4,432) with USC's Amalie Iuel third (4,425).
A&M's Annie Kunz did not finish the pentathlon after three fouls left her with zero points in the fourth event of the five contested. That dropped Kunz out of scoring contention as she went from third place to 15th following the long jump. Kunz then didn't start the final event, the 800m.
Kunz set a personal best of 8.44 for 1,030 points in the 60m hurdles to open the pentathlon. Her previous best was an 8.51. In the high jump Kunz cleared 5-9 ¾ (1.77) to add 941 points to her score. Another career best followed in the shot put as Kunz hit a mark of 43-4 ¼ (13.21) on her first attempt for 741 points. Through three events Kunz was stationed in third place with 2,712 points.
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