Texas A&M
SEC Championships
Texas A&M repeats second place team finishes at SEC Championships
May 14, 2016 | Track and Field
TUSCALOOSA – Texas A&M achieved a pair of second place team finishes during the final day of the SEC Championships held at the Sam Bailey Stadium on Saturday. The Aggie men totaled 101 points while the women scored 82 as Arkansas swept the team titles.
Another pair of individual conference titles were claimed by Shelbi Vaughan and Shamier Little in their specialty events as they each broke facility records.
Meanwhile, Texas A&M also produced six runner-up finishes from the women's 4x100, Audie Wyatt in the pole vault, Latario Collie in the triple jump, Jazmine Fray in 800m, Hector Hernandez in the men's 800m as he lowered his school record and Robert Grant in the men's 400m hurdles.
"Actually, I think our ladies coming into the meet did better in some areas than I thought we would do," noted Aggie head coach Pat Henry. "The ladies stepped up and we had some good things happen. To place second with the ladies, I'm extremely pleased with that effort.
"For the men, I really thought we could have won this meet today, but we weren't ready to do that today, though. We made too many mistakes, and did some things that just keep you from being successful."
Arkansas men totaled 121 points over 101 for Texas A&M with Alabama in third with 88. The rest of the team scoring included LSU (86), Mississippi (66.5), Florida (64), Georgia (58), Missouri (55), Tennessee (53.5), Kentucky (48.5), South Carolina (33.5), Mississippi State (28) and Auburn (15).
The women's team title had Arkansas winning for the third consecutive year with 126.75 points ahead of Texas A&M's 82 with Kentucky in third with 80. The rest of the team scoring included Tennessee (76), LSU (75), Alabama (67.25), Florida (61), Georgia (59), Mississippi State (49.5), Auburn (37), Mississippi (32.75), Missouri (29.75), South Carolina (26) and Vanderbilt (16).
With an effort of 197 feet (60.05) Vaughan claimed a fourth consecutive conference discus title, becoming the first female to accomplish the sweep in the SEC discus. It's also been achieved in the women's SEC shot put and javelin. The series of winning marks by Vaughan have measured 185-10 (2013), 208-8 (2014, meet record), 211-8 (2015, meet record), and 197-0.
Following her opening round toss of 197-0, Vaughan had fouls in round two and three. Then she reached a distance of 183-2 (55.83) in the fourth round before two fouls concluded her day.
"It was exciting getting another 60m throw out there and special to win a fourth consecutive SEC title," said Vaughan. "So, that was really awesome. I just wanted to get a good throw in and go from there.
"The wind wasn't a factor for me today, but it was more my technique. After I got 197-0 on my first throw then I kind of relaxed. I was trying to focus on what I've been doing in practice to get another big throw. But, I'm waiting on the right timing. It's going to happen when it's supposed to happen."
Finishing 12 ½ feet behind Vaughan was the SEC shot put champ, Raven Saunders, with a 184-6 (56.24) effort while Auburn's Rachel Dincoff placed third with a 180-10 (55.12). Texas A&M's Celine Markert had three fouls and didn't place. Saunders held the previous facility record with a 186-6 from earlier this season.
Little dominated the 400m hurdles as she clocked a winning time of 54.72 seconds to better the facility record she had set in the prelims with a 55.29 on Friday. Finishing behind Little was LSU's Chanice Chase in 56.17 while Kentucky's Kiah Seymour finished third in 56.61 ahead of Claudia Francis of Florida, who ran 56.62.
"I'm just excited to be getting my times down and getting back into the rhythm of my race," said Little. "With the strong head wind on the backstretch I wanted to get an early lead over the field. I knew I had to step my race up to defend my title."
Little's time ranks fourth on the 2016 world list, second best among Americans, and is the No. 6 performance on the Aggie all-time list. It's also her 18th consecutive victory among collegiate races over the past three seasons following a third place finish in the 2014 SEC 400m hurdle final.
Hernandez improved his school record to 1:46.15 as runner-up in the 800m behind the winning time of 1:45.68 by Brandon McBride of Mississippi State. Aggie teammate Donavan Brazier clocked 1:46.19, No. 4 on the all-time U.S. junior list and No. 2 performer on the Texas A&M all-time list.
Leading the field through 400m (51.28) with McBride (51.51) and Brazier (51.79) in tow, Hernandez pushed the pace and led past 600m.
The women's 800m had the same result for Jazmine Fray. She led at 400m (58.62) and continued to lead through 600m. Then Ariah Graham of Kentucky pulled ahead for the victory in 2:03.63 as Fray finished second in 2:04.18 with LSU's Morgan Schuetz third in 2:04.19. Aggie Katie Willard placed eighth with a 2:11.17.
Audie Wyatt, the SEC Indoor champion, placed second in the pole vault, clearing 18-3 ¼ (5.57), in a dual with defending SEC outdoor champion Jake Blankenship of Tennessee, who captured the title with an 18-6 ½ (5.65) clearance. They had a spell of passing attempts after misses once the bar surpassed 18 feet.
Both opened at 17-1 (5.21) and progressed through 17-9 (5.41) with little trouble. Wyatt needed two attempts at 17-1 while Blankenship required a second attempt at 17-5 (5.31). After both made 17-9 on first tries, Blankenship passed at 18-0 (5.49) when Wyatt cleared on first attempt.
Both missed at 18-3 ¼, but when Wyatt cleared on his second try, another pass followed for Blankenship. Wyatt missed at 18-6 ½ while Blankenship followed with a clearance. So Wyatt opted to pass to the Olympic qualifying height of 18-8 ¼ (5.70). Each missed on first attempt and then Wyatt had a second miss and was done.
A pair of Aggies, Jacob Wooten and Carl Johansson, tied for fifth place in clearing 17-1 to secure seven points as Texas A&M totaled 15 for the event. Chase Wolfle missed three attempts at 17-1.
With a conference winning streak of nine years, including six titles in the Big 12 and the last three in the SEC, the women's 4x100 unit posted a season best time of 42.94 as they finished runner-up to LSU's 42.77. It was the first time Texas A&M didn't win the conference title since a fourth place in the 2006 Big 12 final.
The foursome included Jennifer Madu, Krystal Sparling, Brenessa Thompson and Aaliyah Brown. Finishing behind the Aggies were Kentucky (43.55), Alabama (43.70), and Tennessee (44.21).
In the men's 4x100 the first exchange was never made between Will Williams and Elijah Morrow. LSU won the race in 38.33 ahead of Arkansas (38.96), Alabama (39.04), Tennessee (39.12), Auburn (39.21) and Florida (39.69).
Robert Grant challenged for the win in the men's 400m hurdles as he set another career best time, clocking 49.44 to move to No. 3 on the Aggie all-time list. Florida's Eric Futch won the race in 49.24 while another Gator, TJ Holmes finished third in 49.96.
Collie repeated his runner-up effort in the conference triple jump, reaching a wind-aided distance of 54-11 ½ (16.75) while his brother Lathone finished fifth at 52-1 ¼ (15.88). Clive Pullen of Arkansas won the event with a 55-0 ¾ (16.78) mark. Aggie Jeffrey Prothro finished 10th at 51-0w (15.54).
A throw of 184-9 placed Jeff Bartlett fourth in the discus as he finished behind a trio of Alabama throwers and ahead of defending NCAA champion Hayden Reed of Alabama. The winner was Daniel Haugh with a toss of 195-3 (59.53).
Fred Kerley ran 45.61 in placing fifth in the 400m. Missouri freshman Kahmari Montgomery, who won the SEC Indoor title, claimed the race in 45.13 over LSU's tandem of Michael Cherry (45.22) and Fitzroy Dunkley (45.34) as well as Florida's Arman Hall (45.43).
Kerley later anchored the Aggie 4x400 to a third-place finish in 3:03.50 behind the meet record victory for LSU in 3:00.48 with Florida runner-up in 3:03.36. The Tigers bettered the previous conference record of 3:01.19 set by Texas A&M in 2014. Running for the Aggies were Deon Hickey, Grant, Brazier and Kerley.
In the women's 400m, won by Taylor Ellis-Watson of Arkansas in 50.81, Texas A&M's Briyahna Desrosier placed seventh with a 52.93. The women's 100m had an Aggie finish of 4-7-9 with the trio of Sparling (11.36), Brown (11.46) and Thompson (11.60).
Texas A&M ran 3:32.83 for sixth place in the 4x400 with Desrosiers, Jarra Owens, Diamond Spaulding and Little. Florida won the final in 3:29.32 over South Carolina's 3:29.54.
Annie Kunz placed eighth in the high jump a day after earning a silver medal in the heptathlon. During the heptathlon high jump Kunz cleared a career best 5-10. She managed 5-8 ¾ (1.75), but missed at 5-10 ¾ (1.80). Also placing eighth in the men's high jump was Sam McSwain, who cleared 6-10 ¾ (2.10) for the team point.
Following her scoring effort in the 10,000m on Thursday, Karis Jochen set a career best of 16:29.62 to place eighth in the 5,000m. The time is No. 8 on the Texas A&M all-time list. In the men's 5,00m, Alex Riba clocked 14:29.97 to place 13th and Austin Wells ran 14:39.57 for 19th.
Eighth place efforts were also turned in by Jackson Davis, with a 52.07 in the 400m hurdles, and Morrow, with a 20.74in the 200m, as both ran in lane one.
In the women's pole vault Emily Gunderson and Sara Kathryn Stevens tied for 12th place as each cleared 13-1 ½ (4.00). Anriel Howard placed 14th in the triple jump with a 41-0 ½ (12.51) mark.
Players Mentioned
