Aggies showcase middle distance talents with 800m sweep at LSU

BATON ROUGE – Texas A&M showcased their talent in middle distance races during the LSU Invitational held Saturday at the Bernie Moore Stadium with a pair of impressive 800m victories from freshman Sammy Watson and sophomore Devin Dixon.

Meanwhile, in the javelin, Kristen Clark unleashed a throw of 184 feet, 4 inches (56.20) to defeat Rebekah Wales, an LSU alum who won the SEC title last season.

Watson clocked a 2:02.49 to defeat Marta Freitas (2:04.47), an alum of Mississippi State, while Aggie teammate Brittany Parker set a career best of 2:05.92 in third place. Jean Jenkins finished fifth in 2:08.13, a career best for her as well.

"This race, once again, put more confidence in my head," noted Watson. "I'm getting better and better at running races alone and pushing myself, knowing even without some competition I can still run fast times."

Watson, who has a career best of 2:00.65 as a prep from last summer, moved to No. 2 performer with the No. 4 performance on the Aggie all-time list. Parker and Jenkins maintained their positions of No. 5 and No. 9 on the all-time list.

Among juniors, athletes under 20 years of age, Watson currently leads the U.S. and is second on the world list. Watson is third among collegians this outdoor season and the fastest freshman.

Dixon's race followed and he withstood a challenge from Alex Amankwa of Ghana with a winning time of 1:45.62. Amankwa ran 1:45.81 as runner-up while Aggie Efrain Hernandez set a career best of 1:48.13 for third place.

"I'm just really happy with that performance," stated Dixon, who set a career best of 45.22 in the 400m last week. "I could feel the guy from Ghana on my back the whole time, he was really pushing me to run what I needed to run. It was a really good race.

"I'm not surprised because I put in all the hard work and effort during practice. This is the result, the fruits of my labor. I think running the 400m has helped me a lot with my confidence. What I'm able to run in the open quarter, it breaks down the 800 into smaller pieces. It helps me relax and understand the 800 more."

The career best by Dixon is the current U.S. and collegiate leader while ranking sixth on the 2018 world list. Improving his previous best of 1:45.71 from winning the SEC title as a freshman last year, Dixon is the No. 2 performer with the No. 3 performance on the Texas A&M all-time list.

Alex Riba, fresh off two consecutive weeks of breaking the school record in the 1,500m, won another section of the 800m in 1:50.69 to place seventh overall.

Clark led the javelin field from the first round, where she opened with a 170-10 (52.08), which was an inch off her season best to date. In the second round, though, she improved to 184-4 (56.02) and followed with a 181-4 (55.28) in round three.

Coming into this season, Clark held a best of 171-7 (52.31). Now she ranks No. 4 on the A&M all-time list behind Maggie Malone (204-0 collegiate record), Audrey Malone (187-2) and Katy Doyle (185-7). Clark currently leads the SEC this season and ranks fourth among collegians.

"At Baylor last weekend I didn't throw that well, but I felt really good on the runway," noted Clark. "I knew I had confidence coming off of Baylor going into practice this week. I had the best practice I've had in a long time. Today was the most fun I've had and the most comfortable. It was the easiest throws I've ever taken."

Wales, who produced a best of 191-0 (58.23) to win the 2017 SEC title, finished second with a 177-2 (54.00). Aggie teammate Maddy Stulce placed fourth at 163-6 (49.94).

"Rebekah and I have thrown together since seventh grade," said Clark, who is from Ruston, Louisiana. "That is my most comfortable competitor. Today was fun, coming back to LSU. I've been competing here for eight years now. I feel like I've done pretty bad here for the past seven of those years, so it was fun getting to end on a really good note here."

Texas A&M women produced a season best time of 3:30.53 as runner-up to Athletics Canada in the 4x400 relay as Alabama finished third in 3:31.24. Watson held off the challenge from Alabama's anchor leg, fellow freshman Tamara Clark, over the final lap of the race.

The Aggie crew consisted of Julia Madubuike (53.3), Glorilisha Carter (52.4), Jazmine Fray (51.9) and Watson (52.9).

"It's been fun getting back into 4x400 relay races," said Watson, who anchored the Aggies last week as well. "I've missed it a lot."

Fray also ran the open 400m, winning her section in 52.99 to place fourth overall. The school record holder in the 800m, Fray is now No. 12 on the A&M all-time list in the 400m.

The Aggie men finished second in the 4x400 relay as LSU took over the lead with 50m left on the anchor leg. The Tigers won in 3:04.63 while Texas A&M posted a 3:05.32. Running for the Aggies were Richard Rose (46.5), Infinite Tucker (46.5), Dixon (45.9) and Kyree Johnson (46.4).

In the open 400m, Rose finished second in 46.43 while Johnson ran 46.84 for third. Colby Zamzow placed third in another section with a 47.61 to place sixth overall.

Racing in the morning produced a sweep of the steeplechase titles for Texas A&M along with a trio of career best times.

Rachel Bernardo won the women's 3,000m steeplechase in a career best of 10:48.76, taking the lead with two laps remaining. Bernardo moves to No. 4 performer on the Aggie all-time list as she improved her previous best of 11:10.97 set two weeks ago at UCLA. Runner-up in the race was Caroline Brooks of Alabama in 10:54.69.

Raymond Gonzales and Zephyr Seagraves finished 1-2 in the men's steeplechase. Both set career best times as Gonzales clocked 9:09.04 in passing Seagraves, 9:09.11, with a stride left in the race. Finishing third behind the pair of Aggies in 9:16.35 was LSU's Harrison Martingayle.

Taylor Clayton won the men's 1,500m in 3:55.05 over a 3:55.45 for Houston's Blake Contreras. Hannah Campbell led the Aggie trio racing in the 1,500m as she established a career best of 4:27.31 in placing fifth. Valarie Bradley (4:37.23) and Ashton Hutcherson (4:37.83) placed seventh and eighth.

Campbell moves to No. 8 performer on the A&M all-time list, improving her previous best of 4:29.09 from the Texas Relays in March.

Maddie Vondra won the women's 5,000m in a career best of 17:27.64 with teammate Lauryn Barrientos runner-up at 17:50.50. Jacob Perry finished second in the men's 5,000m as he clocked 15:17.94.

Tyra Gittens busy day included a section victory in the 100m hurdles at 13.47 for sixth place overall, a high jump runner-up finish at 5-8 ½ (1.74) and she threw the javelin 134-10 (41.10) to place sixth in that event. In the heptathlon, those three events would produce 2,646 points from her efforts with 1,055 points from the hurdles, 903 in the high jump and 688 for the javelin.

Runner-up performances for Texas A&M included Audie Wyatt in the pole vault and Will Williams in the long jump. Wyatt cleared 18-2 ¼ (5.56) in the vault, finishing behind Akron's Matthew Ludgwin (18-6 ¾ | 5.66). Williams last round leap of 25-1 ¼ (7.65) left him shy of the leading wind-aided mark of 25-10 (7.87) by Akron's Jordan Latimer. Aggie Tarah Triki finished sixth in the long jump with a 23-9 ½ (7.25).

Jackson Davis led an A&M trio in the 400m hurdles, placing second in 51.28. Tyler Hart followed in third place at 51.33 with Infinite Tucker fourth in 51.37. Lauren Lawless placed third in her section of the 400m hurdles at 59.60.

Aggie alum Shamier Little posted a time of 55.60 to win the first section of the 400m hurdles over Kymber Payne of LSU, who posted a 56.00 as runner-up. Melissa Gonzalez of Colombia ran 56.14 for third.

Diamond Spaulding produced a time of 22.96 (1.9 wind) for third place in the 200m behind the LSU tandem of Kortnei Johnson (22.83) and Mikiah Brisco (22.86). Aggie Amber Ivy finished fifth in 23.22 after winning her section of the 100m in 11.51 (0.2 wind) to place seventh overall.

In the women's pole vault Sara Kathryn Stevens equaled her outdoor career best of 13-9 ¼ (4.20), matching the No. 2 performance on the Aggie all-time list that she previously shared with Emily Gunderson, who placed sixth at LSU with a 13-3 ½ (4.05) clearance.

The bar went to 14-3 ¼ (4.35) as the next height, nearly five inches over the Texas A&M school record. Akron's Lucy Bryan cleared that bar on one attempt to win the competition while three others, including Stevens, had three misses.

Finishing fourth in throwing events were Austin Cook in the hammer (200-2 | 61.02) and Gabe Oladipo in the shot put (55-11 ¼ | 17.05), while Carissa van Beek placed fifth, third best collegian, in the women's hammer (183-8 | 55.98). Oladipo (173-6 | 52.88) was also seventh in the discus.

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