Thursday, February 25
Fayetteville, Ark.
Texas A&M
at
SEC Indoor Championships
Photo by: Errol Anderson
Mu Breaks U20 World Record, Aggies Claim 800m Titles
Feb 28, 2021 | Track and Field
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Texas A&M men's and women's track & field teams concluded the SEC Indoor Championships by winning the men's and women's 800m titles, while Athing Mu set a World U20 800m record, Saturday night at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Freshman phenom Athing Mu dazzled track & field spectators across the globe as she claimed the SEC indoor 800m title with a World U20 record time of 1:58.40. He time also broke the all-time collegiate record that was held by former Texas A&M national champion Jazmine Fray who ran 2:00.69.
This was also the first time that a collegian had gone sub-1:59.00 over 800m in a collegiate season, indoors or outdoors. Raevyn Rogers held the previous "absolute" collegiate record at 1:59.10 from 2017.
Her mark also set a Randal Tyson Track Center facility record and an SEC Championships meet record.
Mu's victory completed the Texas A&M title sweep of the 800m, earlier in the day Brandon Miller won the men's race with a time of 1:49.69. It is the fourth time in five seasons that Texas A&M has claimed the men's indoor 800m title.
The freshman from St. Louis, Missouri, found himself in third place with about 150m left before he hit the gas to blow past two Rebels from Ole Miss to claim his first career All-SEC honor. Miller clocked 200m splits of 26.66, 27.60, 28.03 and 27.42
Multiple Aggies scored on the final day of competition, including Sean Clarke finishing fourth in the pole vault to score five points for the men's team. After failing to clear 5.05m/16-6.75 on his first attempt, Clarke cleared it on attempt two before clearing 5.15m/16-10.75 on his first jump. Facing a do or die situation, the high flyer cleared 5.25m/17-2.75 on his final attempt before failing to clear the next bar at 5.33m/17-5.75. Zach Davis placed ninth with a jump of 5.05m/16-6.75.
Other point scorers include Bryce Deadmon placing fifth in the 400m with a time of 45.86. Lance Broome clocked 21.15 to finish sixth in the 200m, while Jania Martin placed sixth in the women's 200m at a time of 23.27. Emmanuel Yeboah ran 6.80 to place seventh in the 60m. Jon Bishop, Connor Schulman, Immanuela Aliu and Tierra Robinson-Jones each placed eighth in their respective event. Bishop ran 4:05.01 in the mile and Schulman clocked 7.92 in the 60m hurdles, while Aliu stopped the clock at 7.49 in the 60m and Robinson-Jones ran a season best time of 52.78 in the 400m.
For the second consecutive season, Gittens was named the women's Cliff Harper Award recipient, which is awarded to the top point scorer. Despite scoring only three points on day one in the pentathlon, the multi-athlete bounced back claiming event titles in the high jump and long jump totaling 23 points, two more points than her total in 2020.
Gittens' 23 points is the most since 2008 when Brittney Reese of Tennessee tallied 31 points. She became the first athlete to win the award outright since 1997 when Becki Wells of Florida claimed the award scoring 30 points in 1996 and 22.5 in 1997.
In total, 22 Aggies scored points over the three day meet.
Quotables
Head coach Pat Henry
On Tyra Gittens winning the Cliff Harper Award…
"Tyra has worked hard to deserve that award. She scored 23 points and she wanted to score 30, she just had a tremendous track meet. When you think about how nobody has won the award in consecutive seasons shows you how SEC has had and does have some of the greatest athletes in the country. For her to be that good in this environment is a tremendous accomplishment."
On Brandon Miller winning the men's 800m…
"Brandon is a smart guy, he has the race intelligence of someone older than a freshman in college. He lined up against some good competition today. Brandon is just coming back from being out over a week ago, we didn't know where he was right now. He's ran 1:48, but there was a little bit of questioning about his fitness when he came back but he was smart enough to win the race. He didn't run as fast as he has ran before but this meet is not about how fast, it's about who you beat and he did that."
On Athing Mu…
"Like I've said before, she might be the greatest freshman athlete in any sport ever at Texas A&M and maybe the greatest collegiate freshman athlete in the sport of track & field. I've never seen a freshman accomplish the things that she has achieved and we're not even done with the season. They are going to replay the broadcast of the championships and they're going to interview her, if you want to find out what kind of young lady she is then you might want to watch that broadcast replay. She's a great Aggie, in our meetings she is always on me to say a couple things about certain things and she loves to hear "Remember who we are, we're Texas A&M", she loves that and it tells you a lot about that young lady."
All-SEC Finishers
Tyra Gittens – High Jump (Champion)
Tyra Gittens – Long Jump (Champion)
Athing Mu – 800m (Champion)
Brandon Miller – 800m (Champion)
Mason Corbin – High Jump (Third)
Freshman phenom Athing Mu dazzled track & field spectators across the globe as she claimed the SEC indoor 800m title with a World U20 record time of 1:58.40. He time also broke the all-time collegiate record that was held by former Texas A&M national champion Jazmine Fray who ran 2:00.69.
This was also the first time that a collegian had gone sub-1:59.00 over 800m in a collegiate season, indoors or outdoors. Raevyn Rogers held the previous "absolute" collegiate record at 1:59.10 from 2017.
Her mark also set a Randal Tyson Track Center facility record and an SEC Championships meet record.
Mu's victory completed the Texas A&M title sweep of the 800m, earlier in the day Brandon Miller won the men's race with a time of 1:49.69. It is the fourth time in five seasons that Texas A&M has claimed the men's indoor 800m title.
The freshman from St. Louis, Missouri, found himself in third place with about 150m left before he hit the gas to blow past two Rebels from Ole Miss to claim his first career All-SEC honor. Miller clocked 200m splits of 26.66, 27.60, 28.03 and 27.42
Multiple Aggies scored on the final day of competition, including Sean Clarke finishing fourth in the pole vault to score five points for the men's team. After failing to clear 5.05m/16-6.75 on his first attempt, Clarke cleared it on attempt two before clearing 5.15m/16-10.75 on his first jump. Facing a do or die situation, the high flyer cleared 5.25m/17-2.75 on his final attempt before failing to clear the next bar at 5.33m/17-5.75. Zach Davis placed ninth with a jump of 5.05m/16-6.75.
Other point scorers include Bryce Deadmon placing fifth in the 400m with a time of 45.86. Lance Broome clocked 21.15 to finish sixth in the 200m, while Jania Martin placed sixth in the women's 200m at a time of 23.27. Emmanuel Yeboah ran 6.80 to place seventh in the 60m. Jon Bishop, Connor Schulman, Immanuela Aliu and Tierra Robinson-Jones each placed eighth in their respective event. Bishop ran 4:05.01 in the mile and Schulman clocked 7.92 in the 60m hurdles, while Aliu stopped the clock at 7.49 in the 60m and Robinson-Jones ran a season best time of 52.78 in the 400m.
For the second consecutive season, Gittens was named the women's Cliff Harper Award recipient, which is awarded to the top point scorer. Despite scoring only three points on day one in the pentathlon, the multi-athlete bounced back claiming event titles in the high jump and long jump totaling 23 points, two more points than her total in 2020.
Gittens' 23 points is the most since 2008 when Brittney Reese of Tennessee tallied 31 points. She became the first athlete to win the award outright since 1997 when Becki Wells of Florida claimed the award scoring 30 points in 1996 and 22.5 in 1997.
In total, 22 Aggies scored points over the three day meet.
Quotables
Head coach Pat Henry
On Tyra Gittens winning the Cliff Harper Award…
"Tyra has worked hard to deserve that award. She scored 23 points and she wanted to score 30, she just had a tremendous track meet. When you think about how nobody has won the award in consecutive seasons shows you how SEC has had and does have some of the greatest athletes in the country. For her to be that good in this environment is a tremendous accomplishment."
On Brandon Miller winning the men's 800m…
"Brandon is a smart guy, he has the race intelligence of someone older than a freshman in college. He lined up against some good competition today. Brandon is just coming back from being out over a week ago, we didn't know where he was right now. He's ran 1:48, but there was a little bit of questioning about his fitness when he came back but he was smart enough to win the race. He didn't run as fast as he has ran before but this meet is not about how fast, it's about who you beat and he did that."
On Athing Mu…
"Like I've said before, she might be the greatest freshman athlete in any sport ever at Texas A&M and maybe the greatest collegiate freshman athlete in the sport of track & field. I've never seen a freshman accomplish the things that she has achieved and we're not even done with the season. They are going to replay the broadcast of the championships and they're going to interview her, if you want to find out what kind of young lady she is then you might want to watch that broadcast replay. She's a great Aggie, in our meetings she is always on me to say a couple things about certain things and she loves to hear "Remember who we are, we're Texas A&M", she loves that and it tells you a lot about that young lady."
All-SEC Finishers
Tyra Gittens – High Jump (Champion)
Tyra Gittens – Long Jump (Champion)
Athing Mu – 800m (Champion)
Brandon Miller – 800m (Champion)
Mason Corbin – High Jump (Third)
Players Mentioned
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Pole Vault
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Pole Vault
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Middle Dist.
/ Track and Field
Multi-event
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Mid-Distance
/ Track and Field
Mid-Distance
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Hurdles
/ Track and Field
Sprints
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