COLLEGE STATION – With a tally of 4,160 points Aggie senior Jena Hemann broke her meet record of 4,003 points at the Texas A&M Aggie Invitational on Friday as she missed her school record by 33 points.
Hemann currently ranks eighth in the nation with her winning score. The top 16 scores qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
Finishing runner-up to Hemann with 3,868 points was UTEP’s Jallycia Pearson. Then A&M claimed the next three spots, places 3-4-5, with Ashtin Zamzow (3,663), Lauren Bedrich (3,518) and Shaina Burns (3,410). Annie Kunz (3,151) finished seventh after scoring zero points in the long jump with three fouls.
Hemann produced the second best score in Texas A&M history while Zamzow moved to No. 11 on the Aggie all-time list.
Hemann opened with a near PR of 8.65 (984 pts) in the 60 hurdles, just missing her top effort of 8.63 run at altitude last year during the NCAA meet.
“I was excited to get that hurdle time,” noted Hemann. “Actually I had a dream last night that I was going to run in the 8.40s. I thought if I dreamt it then I’m ready for it. To run 8.65 was exciting.
“Moving onto the high jump I reminded myself to stay relaxed. I wanted to get back to the height where I was coming into college. I was clean up through 5-10, and then I thought I could get 5-11. Doing that well in those two events carried me through the rest.”
In the high jump a clearance of 5-10 (953 pts) had her near her indoor best of 5-10.75. Then an indoor career best of 44-0 (755 pts) followed in the shot put. A long jump of 18-7.25 (750 pts) had Hemann at 3,442 points with the 800 meters remaining.
A time of 2:25.40 would score 752 points and claim Hemann’s school record of 4,193 points by one point. Hemann ran 2:28.02 (718 pts) in coming up short by 33 points, but surpassed her meet record set last season by 157 points.
“Seeing 3,442 as my score had me excited about breaking my record,” said Hemann. “I knew a good score in the 800 could do it, unfortunately I don’t know what happened while I was running. I didn’t get what I wanted to get. So I have some work to do in that event. I need to get my mindset right.”
Zamzow’s production included an 8.86 in the hurdles (939), 5-6.6 high jump (842), 36-6.25 (604) in the shot put, 16-6 in the long jump (567) and a 2:28.56 800m (711).
The first day leader in the men’s heptathlon is Henry Vildosola with 2,994 points. In second and third place is a pair of Aggie newcomers with Lindon Victor (2,967) and John Kyriazis (2,755). Daniel Martin is currently in seventh place with 2,465 points.
Victor ran the 60 meters in 7.10 seconds and long jumped 21-8. Then he produced a 47-10 shot put and 5-11.25 clearance in the high jump. The heptathlon continues Saturday with the 60 hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meters.
In the distance medley relay UTEP won in 9:49.42 over a 9:53.80 from the Aggies, who ran with a foursome of Ian Cazares, Tarik Tyler, Efrain Hernandez and Alex Riba. On the anchor leg Riba split 4:07.12 for 1,600m in keeping pace with Anthony Rotich of UTEP, who split 4:07.04. The rest of the field included Clemson (9:59.67), Baylor (10:02.39) and Rice (10:10.66).
The A&M women were third in 12:01.66 behind a pair of teams from Clemson, who clocked 11:34.72 and 11:42.45. Finishing behind the Aggies were Baylor (12:09.06) and Rice (12:09.57).
Distance races on Friday evening also had UTEP going 1-2 in the men’s 5,000 with Daniel Cheruiyot (14:47.35) and Evans Kiprono (14:58.07). The Aggie tandem Julian Castellano (15:07.59) and Juan Uribe (15:21.17) placed fifth and sixth. Cali Roper of Rice won the women’s 5,000 in 17:11.68 as A&M’s Devin Norton ran 18:26.32 for fifth place.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics