Aggies begin outdoor season with Arizona State's Castillo Invitational

Friday, March 16

Tempe, Ariz.

All Day

Texas A&M

Arizona State Baldy Castillo Invitational

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Mar 15, 2018 | Track and Field

TEMPE, Arizona – Opening the outdoor track and field season at the Baldy Castillo Invitational hosted by Arizona State this Friday and Saturday, the Texas A&M long throwers get their campaigns underway.

The hammer begins at noon (PST) on Friday and is followed by the women's javelin at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, the discus begins the day at 10 a.m. with the men's javelin scheduled for 2 p.m. Running events scheduled for Friday evening include the 2,000m steeplechase followed by the 1,500m. Saturday's track action begins at 2 p.m. and will be completed by 6:30 p.m.

Robert Grant leads a crew of five Aggies in the 400m hurdles as he returns to his hometown of Phoenix. Grant posted a career best of 49.15 during the SEC Championships last season, just missing the Texas A&M school record of 49.05 that was set in 1987, and he currently has six of the top 10 performances on the Aggie all-time list.

This indoor season Grant improved his career best in the 400m to 45.85 during the SEC Championships and produced a split of 44.61 on the Aggie 4x400 relay.

Friday entries for the Aggies include Austin Cook, the Texas A&M school record holder in the hammer with a 214-9 (65.45). The senior also has five of the top 10 performances on the Aggie all-time list.

The women's javelin will feature three Aggies who have produced marks that rank 2-4-10 on the Texas A&M all-time list. Leading the trio is Audrey Malone, who placed third in the 2016 NCAA final with a 187-2, and is followed by Madalaine Stulce (181-5) and Kristen Clark (171-7).

Alex Riba, who broke the indoor mile school record in February as he became the first Texas A&M athlete to run a sub-four mile, will contest the 1,500m with a crew of five teammates. Riba's best in the 1,500 is 3:44.14 from the NCAA semifinal last season, while the school record of 3:43.65 was set by Tommy Bonn in 2002.

Racing in the 2,000m steeplechase is Ashton Hutcherson, who has a best of 10:31.78 in the 3,000m version of the steeplechase from placing eighth in the SEC Championships last season. The school record in the 3k event is 10:29.53 set in 2007 by Sarah Ravenelle.

In the women's 1,500m, the Aggie squad includes Hannah Campbell, who clocked a career best of 4:29.81 last season, along with Ashley Driscoll and Karis Jochen, longer distance runners getting speed work in among a shorter distance race. Jochen ranks among the Texas A&M top 10 in the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meters while Driscoll joins Jochen among the all-time top 10 on the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters list.

After contesting the shot put indoors, Gabe Oladipo gets to add the discus to his schedule on Saturday. Oladipo produced a best of 215-2 with the high school discus. The women's discus will feature the second collegiate season for Serena Brown, who produced a best of 186-6 to win the SEC Relays last season and ranks as the second best performer ever at Texas A&M.

NCAA Indoor champion Will Williams is scheduled to compete in his specialty event along with the 4x100 relay. The winning long jump mark of 26-10 ½ (8.19) that claimed the national championship for Williams last weekend, matches the outdoor school record established by Fabrice Lapierre in 2006.

Williams, the first Aggie indoor long jump champion, was the 18^th long jumper from the SEC to win a NCAA Indoor title and he became the 11^th to complete a SEC and NCAA Indoor double victory.

Audie Wyatt returns to the venue where he improved his outdoor pole vault school record in winning the Sun Angel Classic title last season with a clearance of 18-8 ¼ (5.70). Jacob Wooten, who broke Wyatt's indoor record with an 18-4 ½ (5.60) clearance this season, has an outdoor best of 17-10 ½ (5.45).

The women's vault features three Aggies who ranked among all-time top 10 at Texas A&M with Sara Kathryn Stevens, Emily Gunderson and Augusta Thomason. With career best outdoor vaults of 13-9 ¼ (4.20), Stevens and Gunderson have challenged the school record of 13-10 ½ set in 2011 by Laura Asimakis. Thomason ranks fifth with her best of 13-4 ¼.