Aggies win four events, challenges school record in distance medley

COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M's Austin Cook claimed the weight throw at the Aggie Team Invitational on Friday with a meet record of 67 feet, 5.5 inches (20.56), just missing his school record of 67-7 (20.60).
 
Claiming the weight throw in the women's division at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium was Alison Ondrusek with an effort of 59-1.25 (18.01) as teammate Carissa van Beek placed second with a toss of 58-11.5 (17.97).
 
The weight throwers were among a handful of Aggies competing in the meet while the bulk of the team competes Saturday in the Texas A&M Team Invitational. Field events will begin at noon with running finals starting at 2 p.m.
 
Cooks' performance ranks No. 2 on the Aggie all-time list. His series of throws included a 67-2 (20.47), which ranks as the third best performance. Also in the men's field for Texas A&M was Grady Young, who threw 55-3 (16.84) in placing seventh.
 
Another winning effort for the Aggies came in the women's 5,000m as Devin Norton clocked 17:29.42 to win by 22 seconds as teammate Kaitlin Tanner finished fourth in 18:17.45. In the men's 5,000m Julian Castellano placed fifth in 15:49.83.
 
The women's distance medley relay featured a close finish between Texas (11:33.55), Baylor (11:33.64) and Texas A&M (11.33.89) as the Aggies produced the third best time in school history, getting within four seconds of the school record of 11:29.89 set in 2012. All three teams bettered the previous meet record of 11:35.49 set by Baylor in 2014.
 
Running in the relay for Texas A&M were Arin Rice (3:30.85 – 1200m), Jarra Owens (54.18 – 400m), Katie Watson (2:13.23 – 800m) and Laura Craig (4:55.57 – 1600m).
 
The Aggies placed second in the men's distance medley relay with a time of 9:55.95 behind the winning mark of 9:54.68 by Texas, which came up short of the 9:54.04 meet record set by Texas A&M in 2015. The Aggie quartet included Cameron Villarreal (2:59.82), Kris Brander (48.00), Ryan Teel (1:58.08) and Austin Wells (4:10.06).
 
A trio of Texas A&M squads each won separate heats of the 4x400 relay and produced the top three times overall. The leading squad ran 3:12.65, which included a 47.55 second leg carry by Devin Dixon, with a 3:13.16 from the next unit, which had a 46.59 by Richard Rose on the second leg, followed by a 3:17.28 from a crew that included three legs of middle distance runners.
 
The first two Aggie relay squads each bettered the meet record of 3:15.20 set by Stephen F. Austin in 2014.
 
Contesting the 60m hurdles, Chinyere Njoku placed second in 8.66 with Zahria Moore finishing fourth in 8.70. Infinite Tucker placed fifth in the men's 60m hurdles with an 8.26. Seth Page raced over 60m (6.93) and 200m (21.85), getting sixth in both efforts.
 
Sam Houston State swept the team titles in the Aggie Team Invitational, which featured 13 schools, as the men scored 105.5 points with the women producing 125.
 
The top five men's teams included Louisiana-Lafayette (80.5), Texas A&M-Kingsville (74), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (50) and North Texas (46.5). The top five women's squads included North Texas (64), Prairie View A&M (49), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (47), Lamar (46) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (46).