Gittens Claims Two Titles, 10 Aggies Advance to Finals

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Feb 27, 2021 | Track and Field

By: Tyler Pounds, Athletics Communications

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – After a disappointing performance in the pentathlon on day one of the SEC Indoor Championships, Tyra Gittens bounced back on day two to claim the high jump and long jump event titles while 10 Aggies advanced to Saturday's finals at the Randal Tyson Track Center.

Tyra Gittens highlighted day two of the SEC Indoor Championships by doubling up and claiming event titles in the high jump and long jump. The multi-athlete won the high jump with a clearance of 1.89m/6-2.25, the second highest clearance in Texas A&M history only behind her own school record of 1.91m/6-3.25.

Less than an hour later, she managed to make the long jump finals with a round three jump of 6.19m/20-3.75. It was on her final attempt when she landed at 6.62m/21-8.75 to claim her second victory of the day. The mark equaled her personal best, which ranks as the second best performance in Aggie history.

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— Texas A&M Track & Field/Cross Country (@aggietfxc) February 27, 2021

Gittens wasn't the only Aggie to claim All-SEC honors, fellow high flyer Mason Corbin finished third in the men's high jump with a clearance of 2.08m/6-9.75. It is Corbin's first career All-SEC honor. Jake Lamberth finished sixth (2.08m/6-9.75) and Carter Bajoit placed seventh (2.03m/6-8).

Darius Clark also scored points for the Maroon & White with a seventh place finish in the long jump with a personal best leap of 7.85m/25-9.25, which makes him the fifth best performer all-time in school history.

Ten Aggies advanced to Saturday's finals, including defending 400m champion Bryce Deadmon. The Missouri City, Texas, native, won heat six with a time of 45.93 which ended up being the second fastest qualifying time. He will run in the 400m finals at 2:20 p.m.

Athing Mu clocked the fastest qualifying time in the 800m prelims at 2:05.61, the finals are set for 6:40 p.m. Jon Bishop ran a 4:05.47 mile, the fourth fastest preliminary time, while Jania Martin shaved nearly a half second off her personal best in the 200m to record the fifth fastest qualifying time of 23.17.

Connor Schulman (60m hurdles), Emmanuel Yeboah (60m), Brandon Miller (800m), Lance Broome (200m), Tierra Robinson-Jones (400m) and Immanuela Aliu (60m) each qualified for the finals.

Despite not advancing to the finals, other notable performances include Allon Clay (800m), Dominque Mustin (800m), Kennedy Smith (60m hurdles) and Andre Turay (60m hurdles) finishing one spot out in their respective events.

Championship Saturday begins with the men's pole vault at 12:30 p.m., followed by the start of the finals on the track at 2 p.m. The meet will be streamed on the SEC Network+.

Quotables
Head Coach Pat Henry
On Tyra Gittens…
"Tyra is a great athlete and I don't know of a single great athlete that hasn't had a bad day every once in a while, or have a bad moment because she definitely didn't have a bad day yesterday. She had a couple things go wrong in a couple of her events, she's a multi-event athlete and she had a couple of events that she would like to of done over again. She has a pretty good thought process and she is able to understand what it takes for her to change some things internally and to make her day better, she made a turnaround today and it was evident."

On Tyra Gittens long jump adjustment…
"After winning the high jump, she ran across and put her long jump shoes on and ran down the runway to jump 15-feet again from six feet behind the board. Coach Brady did a good job of coaching her and telling her what she needed to change and how she needed to adjust her runway and she jumped well. Taking coaching and listening to your coaches is essential to getting better and she's doing a good job of doing that right now."

On the depleted team member situation…
"Tomorrow, because of how the SEC has run this meet we are going to be minus a bunch of people that will not run. It's a very difficult situation, there is no reason for it happening the way it happened and our student-athletes are suffering because of other situations and it's unfair to our athletes and our team. We have two of our better relay members that will not be able to run on either one of the men's or women's relays tomorrow because of the situation."

Redshirt junior Tyra Gittens
On overcoming adversity and bouncing back on day two…
"Today was about beating myself because yesterday I let the negative Tyra, the bad Tyra that we don't like to see, I let her overtake and I let her win yesterday. Today I relaxed, I let go and everything that I wanted to do was executed and I can not be happier, I'm so proud of myself."