Fred Kerley runs collegiate-leading 400m behind world leader from Bralon Taplin

Friday, April 8

Tempe, Ariz.

All Day

Texas A&M

Sun Angel Classic

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Apr 10, 2016 | Track and Field

TEMPE – Texas A&M alum Bralon Taplin produced a world-leading time of 44.41 seconds in claiming the 400m title at the 37^th Sun Angel Classic on Saturday evening over Texas A&M's Fred Kerley, who posted the collegiate-leading mark for the 2016 season with a 45.10 career best.

Taplin set his previous career best of 44.89 on the Sun Angel track last year as runner-up to a 44.31 meet record established by Kirani James. Taplin, who paced the 2016 indoor season with a 45.20 world-leading time, had control of the race this year with Kerley offering the strongest challenge from his lane 3 position.

"I like Arizona and I like the weather, it's always hot and track weather," noted Taplin. "It was good to set a PR, but I've had enough of fours after placing fourth at World Indoors and now I run 44.4, it would have been nice to run 44.3.

"I'm in a lot better shape than I was last year. I'm ready to run real fast. I'm on a mission. I got beat at World Indoors and I didn't like how that felt. I'm training totally different and I don't want to have that same feeling at the Olympics. I'm on a mission to not lose again."

Kerley moves to No. 8 on the Aggie all-time list, improving upon his previous PR of 46.38 recorded in Mesa, Arizona, during the 2014 season. Finishing behind the pair of Aggies were Chris Giesting (45.88), Anderson Devonish of Illinois State (46.32), Patrick Feeney (46.66), Stephon Pamilton (46.81) and A&M's Deon Hickey (47.01).

"I think I still have work to do," stated Kerley. "I went out too slow, but I feel blessed with the time I ran. I know I can do better for the first part of my 200, so I can push stronger in the last part of the race. I was hurt last year and this past summer one of training partners really pushed me. I was lifting weights like crazy so I can stay healthy. Now my training this year is pretty good."

A collegiate-leading time of 39.02 was generated by Texas A&M in the 4x100 relay as they placed third behind a pair of professional line-up from Altis, where the B group won in 38.40 over the first unit's time of 38.95.

The Aggie foursome included Will Williams, Kerley, Elijah Morrow and Devin Jenkins. Running the 38.40 for Altis B were Akeem Haynes, Andre De Grasse, Wilfried Koffi and A&M alum Ameer Webb. The other Altis group included Albert Huntley, Jeremy Dodson, BeeJay Lee and Carlos Herrera.

"Our 4x100 still has a lot of room to improve," noted Kerley. "It's good where we are at currently, but we all can progress better."

Jenkins added: "I think we are jelling together more as a team. Us supporting each other as a team is letting us excel as individuals. When you don't have your buddies it can be hard, but once you jell and push each other everything falls into place."

The winning Altis group bettered the meet record of 38.42 set in 1994 by the Santa Monica Track Club, which included Michael Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Floyd Heard and Carl Lewis. Finishing behind the Aggies were Sequoias (39.49), Arizona State (39.55), Mt. SAC (39.81) and Kansas (40.39).

Shamier Little's season debut in the 400m hurdles resulted in a 56.67 victory as she claimed a third consecutive title in the event at the Sun Angel Classic. In winning titles in 2014 and 2015, Little posted times of 56.43 and 56.55.

"I was kind of nervous, but really happy with the outcome," said Little. "To run 56 is the same to what I've been running at this meet the past couple of years. I don't think about running too fast this early in the hurdles, because now I'm going into the second half of my season. I want to be patient and pace it out. I want to run fast at NCAAs, but I want to be able to continue to run fast beyond that this summer."

Notre Dame's Kaila Barber finished second to Little in 57.85 with Jennifer Grossarth, who represents Italy, running 58.47 for third. A&M's Ebony Crear finished seventh in 59.86.

Returning to his home state of Arizona, Robert Grant set a career best of 49.73 as runner-up in the men's 400m hurdles to the world-leading 48.92 recorded by professional Jeshua Anderson. Grant set a previous PR of 50.21 in his last hurdle race two weeks ago. Now he moves to equal No. 6 on the A&M all-time list matching the time of Rodrigues Pfister from 1996.

Aikan Graham placed fifth in the race with a 51.34, just off his career best of 51.14 set in the SEC Championships last year. A pair of Aggie freshmen, Jackson Davis (52.16) and DeWitt Thomas (52.21) finished eighth and ninth overall after placing first and second in the same section.

Jenkins clocked 10.22 (1.1 wind) and 20.39 (0.5 wind) as the top collegiate finisher in the men's premiere 100m and 200m. The performances moved Jenkins to equal No. 12 in the 100m and equal No. 10 in the 200m on the A&M all-time list.

"It's a blessing, overall I feel really good and healthy," noted Jenkins. "Running with post-collegians is good for me, because there will come a time when I need to do it any way. So to do it right now is a real blessing."

Winning the 100m race in 10.01 was Wilfried Koffi of Atlis, just a whisper ahead of the 10.03 by Aggie alum Ameer Webb. Canada's Andre De Grasse was the lone finisher ahead of Jenkins in the 200m with a 20.23.

The Aggie women won the 4x100 relay in 43.75 with a foursome of Jennifer Madu, Krystal Sparling, Brenessa Thompson and Aaliyah Brown. UTEP ran 44.55 as runner-up while a second A&M crew placed third in 44.72 over Notre Dame's 44.75. The second A&M relay consisted of Briyahna Desrosiers, Jarra Owens, Diamond Spaulding and Glorilisha Carter.

Desrosiers followed up with a 52.69 career best as runner-up in the premiere 400m, finishing behind a 52.56 by Notre Dame's Margaret Bamgbose. Following Desrosiers, who moved to No. 8 on the A&M all-time list, were UTEP's Florence Uwakwe (53.34) and Titania Markland of Minnesota (53.53).

The other members of the sprint relay returned for the premiere division of the 100m. Leading that group was Brown with an 11.52 for fourth place, followed by Sparling in fifth with an 11.54. Thompson placed eighth overall with an 11.58 while Madu ran 11.74 to finish 11^th.

In the 200m later in the evening, it was Little posting a 23.25 as the top collegian in the field ahead of teammates Brown (23.29), Spaulding (23.39) and Thompson (23.39) as they claimed overall places of 3-4-5-6. Great Britain's Jodie Williams won the race in 22.99 with Mahagony Jones runner-up in 23.02.

"I was definitely excited with my 200 time," said Little. "Since my freshman year I haven't been paying as much attention to my 200. Now I want to get my 200 time down. Trusting the coaching, and myself, then it came together when it needed to."

A victory in the 1,500m had Hector Hernandez posting a time of 3:48.97 to defeat a pair of Kansas runners, Bryce Richards (3:49.53) and Brandon Bernal (3:50.88). It was the first collegiate race at this distance for Hernandez, who clocked 4:11.34 in the mile this past indoor season. Aaron Murray won another section of the 1,500 in 3:53.42 to place ninth overall. Ian Cazares finished 15^th with a 3:56.02.

Racing in the premiere division over a mile distance, Austin Wells placed 10^th in 4:06.95 while Alex Riba, who fell midway through the race, ran 4:17.62 and placed 14^th.

Jeff Bartlett threw the discus 187-1 (57.03) in the men's premiere division to finish third. The winning mark was 189-5 (57.73) by Mitchell Cooper of Kansas with Arizona State's Kyle Long runner-up with a 188-1 (57.32).

Sam Hardin finished third in the javelin, second among collegians in the field, as he threw 231-6 (70.57). Tim Glover won the event with a 251-8 as UTEP's Rasmus Maukonen placed second with a 235-4 (71.72).

The women's javelin had a 3-4-5 finish for the Aggies with the trio of Audrey Malone (167-4), Krystyn Bradley (151-5) and Kristen Clark (45.94). Texas Tech's Hanna Carson won the event with a 178-5 with Nicolle Murphy of Minnesota runner-up at 169-0.

In the women's open discus Celine Markert improved to 165-11 (50.58) to place third in the field of 20 throwers. The mark moves Markert to No. 7 on the Aggie all-time list.

Sara Kathryn Stevens cleared 13-7 ¼ (4.15) to finish fifth in the women's pole vault. Jacob Wooten and Carl Johansson each cleared 17-0 ¾ (5.20) in the men's pole vault, placing fourth and fifth as they were the second and third best collegians in the competition.

Open sections of the 400 included Donavan Brazier clocking 47.02 for fourth in his section and placing seventh overall. Ilolo Izu finished 15^th overall with a 48.05. In the women's open 400, Jarra Owens placed fourth in her section with a 54.53 and finishes sixth overall.

Annie Kunz won her section of the 100m hurdles in a career best of 13.67 to place eighth overall in the field of 27 hurdlers. Kunz improved her previous best time of 13.85 set in 2013. The 13.67 would score Kunz 1,026 points in the heptathlon. In the shot put Kunz placed seventh with a mark of 42-6 (12.95) while in the long jump she place 14^th with an 18-9 (5.71) effort.