91st Texas Relays next adventure for nationally ranked Aggies

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Mar 27, 2018 | Track and Field

AUSTIN – Texas A&M competes in the 91^st Texas Relays this Wednesday through Saturday at Myers Stadium as the Aggies showcase their talents over 10 relay races along with various individual events.

Heading into the Texas Relays weekend with the Texas A&M men ranked No. 2 and the women No. 6 in the preseason outdoor national rankings from USTFCCCA, the Aggies are one of the top combined programs entered in the meet.

"This is kind of our last year of home away from home in Austin," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "Because starting next year we'll have our own outdoor meets. But Texas Relays will always be on the calendar, it's a big time meet. We're looking forward to it and our team prepared and did a good job last weekend at UTSA.

"On Friday and Saturday there will be over 20,000 people in the stands, so we get to run in front of a lot of people. For some of our freshmen it's needed. We need to do that since we have bigger meets later in the season that will have big crowds as well."

Other nationally ranked squads entered in the Texas Relays include Arkansas (women No. 1, men No. 11), Georgia (women No. 3, men No. 5), Texas (women No. 6, men No. 19), Virginia Tech (men No. 12, women No. 20), Houston (men No. 3), Texas Tech (men No. 8), LSU (women No. 9), Kansas (men No. 10), and Baylor (men No. 25).

There will be 13.5 hours of coverage available of the Texas Relays through the Longhorn Network, which can be seen through the ESPN app as well as certain cable and satellite options.

Coverage begins Wednesday with a tape delay of the multi-events starting at 6 p.m. (CT). Another tape delay recap of the multi-event airs at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday with live action following at 6 p.m. On Friday, the live window is from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by an evening session from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday will feature a four-hour live block from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Last season the Aggie men were named the outstanding team for the third consecutive year while Lindon Victor was named the outstanding performer following his collegiate record victory in the decathlon. Texas A&M has been named the Texas Relays outstanding team seven times over the past nine seasons with the honors occurring in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The Aggie men and women received outstanding team honors in 2009, 2010, and 2011, coinciding with the set of six NCAA Outdoor Championship team titles Texas A&M garnered over that three-year span. The Aggie men have been named the outstanding team on the four other occasions.

Texas A&M is scheduled to compete in 10 relay events, five each for the men and women among the following relays – 4x100, 4x400, 4x800, sprint medley and distance medley. Texas A&M won 10 events at last year's Texas Relays, five of which were attained in relay races.

Over the past 10 years, Texas A&M has accumulated 25 Texas Relays titles in those relay events as well as another 11 in the 4x200, which the Aggies will not contest this season. The breakdown of titles includes five in the women's 4x100, four each in the men's 4x400 and 4x800, three apiece in the men's 4x100, sprint medley and distance medley as well as pair of titles in the women's sprint medley.

Texas A&M will be defending champions in the following relay events – men's 4x400 and sprint medley, women's 4x100 and sprint medley.

"While this is just another track meet, we get to run five different relays per gender," noted Henry. "We'll run each relay except for the 4x200 this weekend. We're still a little thin with a couple of hurts with some sprinters. We don't want to spread it thin on either the men's or women's side."

Last season the pair of sprint medley victories during the Texas Relays led to collegiate record performances by the men and women when they ran the event again during the SEC Relays in Baton Rouge.

"The LSU meet at the end of April is a different meet this year," added Henry. "So this will be the only time we get to run events like the 4x800, sprint medley and distance medley during the outdoor season. So our group of young people look forward to running those relays. I think we have really good personnel in the relays and we're going to run well."

Defending NCAA champion John Kyriazis will miss an opportunity to claim a third consecutive Texas Relays title in the javelin as his debut in the event this season has been delayed. Last year, Kyriazis threatened the collegiate record with his meet and facility record performance of 288-9 (88.01).

Wednesday's action includes the heptathlon, starting at 10:30 a.m., followed by the decathlon, with an 11 a.m. start. Aggies Tyra Gittens and Shaina Burns will contest the heptathlon with Nathan Hite in the decathlon.

Events involving Texas A&M on Thursday include the hammer with Carissa van Beek and Austin Cook. Prelims in the 400m hurdles will involve Lauren Lawless in the women's event along with Ilolo Izu, Infinite Tucker, Jackson Davis and DeWitt Thomas in the men's event.

The Thursday evening session features distance races. Hannah Campbell and Valerie Bradley race in the women's 1500 as Taylor Clayton and Cameron Villarreal battle in the men's 1500. The 3,000m steeplechase will include Ashton Hutcherson and Zephry Seagraves. The evening is capped off with the 5,000m as Ashley Driscoll and Karis Jochen team up in the women's race while Jacob Perry and Brandt Preston compete in the men's race.

Texas Relays – Friday Schedule – Texas A&M athletes

9:35 am	4x100 prelims	Women	Texas A&M
9:55 am	4x100 prelims	Men	Texas A&M
10:00 am	Long Jump B	Women	Lajarvia Brown
	Pole Vault	Women	Emily Gunderson, Sara Kathryn Stevens, Augusta Thomason
	Shot Put B	Women	Celine Markert
	Shot Put B	Men	Gabriel Oladipo
10:20 am	100m Hurdle prelims	Women	Taryn Milton, Zharia Moore, Chinyere Njoku
	110m Hurdle prelims	Men	Tyler Guillory
10:50 am	100m prelims	Women	Amber Ivy, Virginia Kerley, Brenessa Thompson
11:30 am	Javelin	Women	Kristen Clark, Audrey Malone, Madalaine Stulce
3:00 pm	Triple Jump	Women	Lajarvia Brown, Ciynamon Stevenson
	Triple Jump	Men	Tahar Triki
4:00 pm	Discus	Men	Gabriel Oladipo
5:40 pm	Sprint Medley	Women	Texas A&M
	Sprint Medley	Men	Texas A&M
6:00 pm	Javelin	Men	Sam Hardin, William Petersson
7:00 pm	400m Hurdles FINAL	Women	(Lauren Lawless)
7:05 pm	400m Hurdles FINAL	Men	(Ilolo Izu, Infinite Tucker, Jackson Davis, Dewitt Thomas)
7:15 pm	Distance Medley	Women	Texas A&M
7:30 pm	Distance Medley	Men	Texas A&M

Texas Relays – Saturday Schedule – Texas A&M athletes

10:00 am	Discus B	Women	Celine Markert
10:40 am	4x800 Relay	Women	Texas A&M
10:50 am	4x800 Relay	Men	Texas A&M
1:30 pm	Discus	Women	Serena Brown
	4x100 Relay	Men	(Texas A&M)
1:35 pm	4x100 Relay	Women	(Texas A&M)
1:45 pm	Pole Vault	Men	Jacob Wooten, Audie Wyatt
2:20 pm	100m Hurdles FINAL	Women	(Taryn Milton, Zharia Moore, Chinyere Njoku)
2:40 pm	110m Hurdles FINAL	Men	(Tyler Guillory)
2:45 pm	High Jump	Men	Garrett Cragin
3:00 pm	Long Jump	Men	Tahar Triki, Will Williams
3:15 pm	100m FINAL	Women	(Amber Ivy, Virginia Kerley, Brenessa Thompson)
5:00 pm	4x400 Relay	Women	Texas A&M
5:05 pm	4x400 Relay	Men	Texas A&M