Texas A&M's No. 2 men, No. 5 women travel to San Antonio for Ricardo Romo Invitational

Thursday, March 24

San Antonio, Texas

All Day

Texas A&M

UTSA Invitational

Mar 23, 2016 | Track and Field

SAN ANTONIO – Texas A&M's outdoor campaign continues with the first of three meets the Aggies have on their schedule in the state of Texas this spring as the nationally ranked men's and women's team competes in the Ricardo Romo Invitational held at the UTSA Park West Athletics Complex this Thursday through Saturday.

The team scored meet will include Akron, Baylor, TCU, and Texas State in addition to the Aggies and host UTSA. Live results from the competition will be available at http://goutsa.com/fls/13100/tf_results/romo_invite/index.htm.

Action in the Ricardo Romo Invitational begins Thursday with the decathlon at noon and heptathlon at 12:30 p.m. The multi-events continue at 11 a.m. on Friday with the women's hammer and men's shot put following at 2 p.m. Saturday's field events begin at 10 a.m. with running events underway from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Preseason national rankings for the outdoor season, released Wednesday by USTFCCCA, have the Texas A&M men No. 2 and the Aggie women No. 5.

The top 10 men's teams include Oregon at No. 1 followed by six SEC schools with A&M at No. 2 ahead of 3. Florida, 4. LSU, 5. Arkansas, 6. Alabama, 7. Texas, 8. Virginia, 9. Illinois and 10. South Carolina. LSU is No. 1 in the women's rankings, with six SEC schools among the top 10, followed by 2. Oregon, 3. Arkansas, 4. USC, 5. Texas A&M, 6. Georgia, 7. Texas, 8. Kansas State, 9, Kentucky and 10. Florida.

In the decathlon at UTSA for the Aggies are Rodney Ripley and Ben Zook while Shaina Burns is in the heptathlon. In the women's hammer Shelbi Vaughan joins teammates Alison Ondrusek and Carissa van Beek. The men's shot put field includes Jeff Bartlett and Nathan Hite while Annie Kunz contests the women's shot put.

Vaughan will also throw the discus this weekend along with Celine Markert while Bartlett and Hite will also contest the discus along with Brody Gowing.

Krystal Sparling, the women's SEC Freshman of the Week following her 11.38 victory in the 100m this past weekend, in entered in the 200m at UTSA along with Brenessa Thompson, Jennifer Madu, Shamier Little and Chinyere Njoku.

Devin Jenkins returns to the 200m for his first outdoor race in the event and will be joined by teammates Elijah Morrow, Deon Hickey, Reggie Garner and Latario Collie. Jenkins ran 10.33 as the top collegiate finisher in the 100m last weekend while Hickey posted a 46.51 victory in the 400m.

Aaliyah Brown headlines the women's 100m field as Thompson and Diamond Spaulding join her. In the 400m Briyahna Desrosiers leads a crew of five Aggies, which includes Jarra Owens, Glorilisha Carter, Marcquita Stalbert and Jessica Laseak.

After winning the 400m hurdles with a time of 51.37 in his home state of Arizona last weekend, Robert Grant leads a crew of six Aggies racing in the event this weekend.

The rest of the A&M group includes Aikan Graham, Kris Brander, Dewitt Thomas, Jackson Davis and Ryan Mehl. They will look to challenge a pair of UTSA hurdlers, Jurmarcus Shelvin and Randolph Bermea, who posted times of 51.36 and 51.52 on their home track last weekend.

Ebony Crear and Lauren Bedrich, who placed second and third in Arizona, will race again in the 400m hurdles while Sabrien Wheeler represents the Aggies in the men's 110m hurdles.

A pair of 800m runners, JaQwae Ellison and Efrain Hernandez, move down to the 400m this weekend to race against teammates Richard Rose and Ilolo Izu. The Aggies will still have a group of six racing at 800m with Alex Riba and Nathan Ricketts, who ran in a 4x800 relay last weekend, moving down from the 1,500m to compete with Ian Cazares, Wade Karam, Tarik Tyler and Blake Chiminetta.

Ricketts is also scheduled to compete in the 1,500 with Ryan Teel, Austin Wells, Aaron Murray and Jake Bootz. The women's 1,500 will include Katie Watson, Laura Craig, Lauren Fontana and Karis Jochen.

Jacob Wooten and Carl Johansson will vault for the Aggies this weekend with Sara Kathryn Stevens and Brittany Wooten in the women's pole vault. Following a triple jump victory in Arizona, Jeffrey Prothro moves to the long jump this weekend. The men's high jump includes Sam McSwain and Garrett Cragin with Kara Erickson in the women's high jump.