Aggies head into 89th Texas Relays as defending champions in five relay events

Wednesday, March 30

Austin, Texas

All Day

Texas A&M

Texas Relays

Mar 29, 2016 | Track and Field

AUSTIN – Four days of track and field action in the 89^th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays begin Wednesday at Myers Stadium with multi-event competition and continue through Saturday for Texas A&M, with its men's team ranked No. 2 and the women No. 5 nationally.

The Aggies enter the meet as defending champions in five relay events – men's 4x100, 4x400, 4x800 and distance medley along with the women's 4x200 – and they will contest 11 relay events this weekend.

A&M also had five individual winners in 2015 and four return this season. Shelbi Vaughan seeks a fourth consecutive collegiate discus title at the Texas Relays, having set the meet record a year ago with a 201-8 winning throw. Latario Collie claimed the triple jump last year while Chase Wolfle and Jeffrey Prothro each won B division titles in the pole vault and triple jump.

"This has kind of been our home meet outdoors the past few years," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "Because it's one opportunity for people who follow our sport to come over to Austin and watch our team compete and see what we're doing right now.

"The Texas Relays have been very important to our team. It's a traditional meet, and has been an important meet for a long, long time. It's very competitive and it will be one that we look forward to get going in this weekend."

Last season the Aggie men earned the distinction as the Texas Relays outstanding team for the fifth time since 2009. The A&M men and women were selected as the outstanding teams in 2009, 2010 and 2011, the same three seasons the Aggies won an unprecedented set of men's and women's NCAA Outdoor championships. In 2013 and 2015 the A&M men were chosen as the outstanding team at the Texas Relays.

Heading into the Texas Relays weekend the Aggie men are current collegiate leaders in the 4x100 (39.17), 4x400 (3:04.99) and 4x800 (7:21.43) relays. The A&M women are currently seventh in the nation in the 4x100 (44.51) and 4x400 (3:37.34).

"We will race in some different relays such as the 4x200, 4x800, sprint medley and distance medley," noted Henry. "This will probably be the only opportunity we have to run these events this season since the NCAA Championship events are the 4x100 and 4x400. In each one of those relays we'll do the best we can and give a lot of our athletes an opportunity to get on the track."

"It's early in the outdoor season, but both of our groups in the men's 4x100 and 4x400 have run well and our ladies have run ok, and they are getting a little bit better. Now the competition starts heating up and you get to run head-to-head with some teams, so things start changing from this point forward. That's the fun part and it's what our sport is all about."

Daniel Martin will be the first Aggie in action as he competes in the decathlon on Wednesday and Thursday. Individual events involving Aggies on Thursday include the women's hammer, men's pole vault, 400m hurdles, 1,500m, 3,000m steeplechase and the men's 5,000m.

Coverage of the Texas Relays will be available on the Longhorn Network, as they air 14 hours of the meet over four days, with the following schedule of start times along with a link to the online webcast.

Wednesday, March 30 – 8:30 p.m. (http://es.pn/1VA35Ec)
Thursday, March 31 – 4:30 p.m. (http://es.pn/1WFD8kY)
Thursday, March 31 – 6 p.m. (http://es.pn/21RcpDn)
Friday, April 1 – 9:30 a.m. (http://es.pn/1S3wYY8)
Friday, April 1 – 7 p.m. (http://es.pn/1pH9RfF)
Saturday, April 2 – 1:30 p.m. (http://es.pn/1UCgvAb)

There is no charge to attend the Texas Relays sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. For Friday and Saturday an all-session pass is $40 (reserved) and $20 (general admission). Tickets for either just Friday or Saturday are $20 (reserved, lower east stadium) and $10 (general admission). Tickets can be purchased at TexasSports.com or through the Texas Athletics ticket office – (800) 982-2386.

Texas A&M entries at the Texas Relays
Wednesday
11:00 a.m.     Decathlon              Multi   Daniel Martin

Thursday
10:00 a.m.     Decathlon              Multi   Daniel Martin
11:00 a.m.     Hammer                      F   Alison Ondrusek, Carissa van Beek
2:30 p.m.       Pole Vault (C)             F   Carl Johansson
4:30 p.m.       400 Hurdles                P   Ebony Crear, Lauren Bedrich
5:00 p.m.       400 Hurdles                P   Kris Brander, Aikan Graham, DeWitt Thomas
7:20 p.m.       1,500 meters (B)         F   Aaron Murray
7:30 p.m.       1,500 meters               F   Nathan Ricketts
7:40 p.m.       Steeplechase              F   Hannah Campbell
8:00 p.m.       Steeplechase              F   Elliott Farris, Ryan Teel
9:30 p.m.       5,000 meters               F   Christian Farris, Juan Uribe

Friday
9:35 a.m.     4x100 relay                 P   A&M women
10:00 a.m.     4x100 relay                 P   A&M men
10:00 a.m.     Pole Vault (B)             F   Emily Gunderson, Sara Kathryn Stevens
10:00 a.m.     Shot Put (B)                F   Jeff Bartlett
10:45 a.m.     100 Hurdles                P   Ebony Crear
11:30 a.m.     100 meters                  P   Aaliyah Brown, Krystal Sparling, Brenessa Thompson
11:30 a.m.     100 meters                  P   Aaron Sims
11:30 a.m.     Javelin (A)                   F   Krystyn Bradley, Kristen Clark, Audrey Malone, Maggie Malone
1:00 p.m.       High Jump (B)             F   Garrett Cragin, Samuel McSwain
3:00 p.m.       Triple Jump (A)           F   Latario Collie, Lathone Collie, Jeffrey Prothro
4:00 p.m.       Discus (A)                   F   Jeff Bartlett
5:30 p.m.       Sprint Medley              F   A&M women
5:40 p.m.       Sprint Medley              F   A&M men
6:00 p.m.       Javelin (A)                   F   Sam Hardin, John Kyriazis
6:55 p.m.       400 Hurdles                F   Women (qualifiers from prelims)
7:05 p.m.       400 Hurdles                F   Men (qualifiers from prelims)
7:15 p.m.       Distance Medley         F   A&M women
7:30 p.m.       Distance Medley         F   A&M men

Saturday
10:00 a.m.     Discus (B)                   F   Celine Markert
10:50 a.m.     4x800 relay                 F   A&M men
11:00 a.m.     High Jump                   F   Annie Kunz
Noon             4x200 relay                 F   A&M men
12:10 p.m.     4x200 relay                 F   A&M women
1:30 p.m.       Discus (A)                   F   Shelbi Vaughan
1:30 p.m.       4x100 relay                 F   Men (qualifiers from prelims)
1:35 p.m.       4x100 relay                 F   Women (qualifiers from prelims)
2:15 p.m.       100 Hurdles                F   (qualifiers from prelims)
3:00 p.m.       Pole Vault (A)             F   Chase Wolfle, Jacob Wooten, Audie Wyatt
3:00 p.m.       Long Jump (A)            F   Will Williams
3:05 p.m.       100 meters                  F   Women (qualifiers from prelims)
3:15 p.m.       100 meters                  F   Men (qualifiers from prelims)
4:45 p.m.       4x400 relay                 F   A&M men
4:50 p.m.       4x400 relay                 F   A&M women

(F = finals, P = prelims)