Texas A&M sprints away with team titles at UTSA Roadrunner Invitational

Friday, March 24

San Antonio, Texas

All Day

Texas A&M

Roadrunner Invitational

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Mar 25, 2017 | Track and Field

UTSA Roadrunner Inv. RESULTS Results pdf - UTSA

SAN ANTONIO – Texas A&M won a total of 17 events as they swept the team titles at the UTSA Roadrunner Invitational with the men scoring 231 points and the women accumulating 264 points among the seven team field.

The Aggie men, with nine victories, finished ahead of host UTSA (147.5), Akron (114) and Baylor (96.5) while the women, also with eight wins, finished ahead of Baylor (145), Akron (116) and UTSA (111).

Sprint events showcased an abundance of Texas A&M talent on Saturday, particularly in the 200m with wind-aided victories from Fred Kerley (20.27w) and Danyel White (22.55w). The Aggies swept the 4x100 relays and 200m while also claiming wins in the men's 100m, 400m and 4x400 relay.

"It was set up to be a good day in the 200, but we had good times in the 400 as well," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "It was a good day overall, and in particular for Fred Kerley with the time he ran in the 200. Then the ladies produced times of 22.5 and 22.6, those were huge efforts. We had five ladies under 22.9. That's really good running.

"We saw some things that we needed to see and some people that are a little bit disappointing right now too. But, mostly, we saw good stuff across the board today."

The Aggie men improved its collegiate leading time in the 4x100 relay with a 39.12 as the women produced the second fastest collegiate time this season at 43.16. On the men's squad were Will Williams, Fred Kerley, Elijah Morrow and Jace Comick. The women's crew included Diamond Spaulding, Danyel White, Brenessa Thompson and Aaliyah Brown.

Finishing behind the Texas A&M men were Baylor (39.42) and UTSA (40.09) while the same two schools finished behind the Aggie women with Baylor (44.08) and UTSA (45.59).

Robert Grant and Richard Rose had a good race in the 400m as both produced career best times. Grant, in lane three, closed on Rose, who was in lane five, in the final stages of the race to secure the victory in 46.17 over the 46.24 by Rose. Eric Age clocked 46.92 to place fourth in the race.

"It was a good race and luckily I had Richard on the outside of me," noted Grant. "He helped pull me through the first 300m. Then from there I finished strong. Fred and Mylik Kerley told me to relax a bit on the backstretch and I put that into effect today. It helped me to finish a little bit stronger today."

Kerley cruised in the 200m to finish in a wind-aided 20.27 (2.9 wind) with Morrow runner-up at 20.52. Williams won the 100m in 10.56 (-0.3 wind) with Comick (10.68 | 0.7 wind) in fifth place.

In the women's 200m the Aggie sprinters took control as they earned places first through seventh among the collegians in the event. White led the crew with a windy 22.55 (2.7 wind) and was followed by Thompson (22.59w), Brown (22.68w) and Diamond Spaulding (22.81w) with professional Phyllis Francis, who placed fifth in the 2016 Olympic 400m final, finishing fourth in that section at 22.75w.

Jaevin Reed won the previous section of the 200m in 22.84 (1.3 wind) in producing the No. 8 time on the Texas A&M all-time list with teammates Kadecia Baird (23.03) and Briyahna Desrosiers (23.07) in tow.

Mylik Kerley closed out the men's 4x400 relay with a split of 44.8 seconds as the Aggies improved their outdoor collegiate leading time to 3:04.63 and defeated Baylor (3:06.08). The first three legs for Texas A&M included Richard Rose (46.2), Ilolo Izu (46.9) and Eric Age (46.7).

Baylor (3:33.98) finished ahead of the Aggies (3:35.12) in the women's 4x400 as the two teams produced a pair of the fastest collegiate times this outdoor season. Texas A&M's foursome included Desrosiers (52.9), Glorilisha Carter (55.0), Jarra Owens (53.9) and Baird (53.4).

Victories in the middle distance and distance events included a 4:29.08 by Jazmine Fray in the 1,500m, which is No. 8 on the Aggie all-time list, sweeps by Jacob Perry (8:39.99) and Ashley Driscoll (10:12.16) in the 3,000m and an impressive performance by Ashton Hutcherson (7:02.14) in the 2,000m steeplechase.

Field event wins included Lajarvia Brown in the women's triple jump at 42-6 ¾ (12.97) with Ciynamon Stevenson in third at 41-10 (12.75). Jeffrey Prothro reached a distance of 51-5 ¾ (15.69) to claim the men's triple jump into a -1.3 wind.

Serena Brown, an 18-year-old freshman from the Bahamas, placed second in the discus with a career best of 174-4 (53.13), which improves her national record from the 173-0 (52.73). It also moved Brown to No. 3 on the Texas A&M all-time list. Aggie teammate Celine Markert finished third with a throw of 162-0 (49.37) while Baylor's Cion Hicks won the event at 176-7 (53.83).

A week after setting a career best of 5-8 ¾, Kara Erickson placed second in the high jump with a 5-8 (1.73) clearance. She then had three attempts at 5-10 (1.78). Sashane Hanson of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won the event, also with a 5-8 clearance.

Other runner-up efforts in the field events for the Aggies included Jeff Bartlett (180-2) in the discus, Garrett Cragin (6-8 ¾) in the men's high jump, and Sara Kathryn Stevens (13-3 ½) in the pole vault. Carl Johansson finished in a tie for fourth place in the men's pole vault as he cleared 16-10 ¾ (5.15).

Second place finishes on the track also included Lauren Lawless (13.98w) in the 100m hurdles, Blake Chiuminetta (1:51.92) in the 800m, JaQwae Ellison (4:01.20) in the 1,500m, Eli Canal (8:45.56) in the 3,000m, and Olivia Arriaza (10:20.77) in the women's 3km ahead of Lauryn Barrientos (10:25.13).

Aggies finishing third and fourth in races were Infinite Tucker (14.10w) and Tyler Guillory (14.37w) in the 110m hurdles, Izo (52.82) and Kris Brander (53.60) in the 400m hurdles, as well as Brittany Parker (2:12.39) and Miah Nelson (2:13.20) in the 800m along with Ian Cazares (1:52.22) and Taylor Clayton (1:52.85) in the men's 800m.