Credit to Matthew McGinnis | Student Assistant, Athletics Communications – 12thman.com
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas A&M women’s track & field team scored 36 points to claim fifth place in the completion of the NCAA Division I Track & Field Championship meet at Mike A. Myers Stadium on Saturday.
The Aggies claimed their fourth straight top five finish, giving Pat Henry a total of 20 top five team finishes in his time with Texas A&M. Texas won the meet with 83 points, while Florida finished runner-up with 51 points and Arkansas was third with 46 points.
The women’s 4x400m squad claimed the silver medal with a time of 3:26.12, earning first team all-American status for the fourth time in a row. Kennedy Wade opened the race with a split of 52.81, handing off to Tierra Robinson-Jones, who clocked 51.52. Sanu Jallow received the baton in seventh before splitting 51.62 to get the team to third place going into the anchor leg. Jermaisha Arnold, moved the team into second place, bringing the team home in 50.18, the third-fastest split of the race. The squad’s second-place finish gave the team eight points to add to the team total.
Lamara Distin earned her fifth career NCAA medal in the high jump, clearing 6-1.5/1.87m for second place. Distin adds the silver medal to her collection that includes three gold medals (2022 indoor and outdoor, 2023 indoor) and a silver medal (2021 outdoor) in the span of two calendar years. The runner-up performance added eight points to the Aggie women’s team point total.
Joniar Thomas placed sixth overall in the heptathlon with a personal best total of 5967 points. Entering day two of the event in 13th overall, Thomas started the afternoon with a personal best leap of 21-4.25/6.51m to add 1010 points to her total score. That mark would have placed fourth overall in Wednesday’s long jump competition. Thomas went on to toss a personal best 144-4/43.99m to earn 744 points in the javelin, while ending the night scoring 770 points in the 800m with a 2:23.98, less than a second off her personal best time of 2:23.20 from the SEC Outdoor Championship meet. Her final score improves her No. 4 performer mark in Texas A&M history and added three points to the team’s point total.
Arnold and Robinson-Jones each earned first team all-American honors in the 400m, Arnold placing seventh at 51.05 and Robinson-Jones clocking 51.12 for eighth place. Arnold also earned first team all-American status at the NCAA Indoor meet where she finished eighth in the 400m race, while Robinson-Jones received her first career individual first team all-American honor. The Aggie duo provided three more points to the team’s total.
Texas A&M Point Scorers
8 – Lamara Distin (High Jump)
8 – Lianna Davidson (Javelin)
6 – Katelyn Fairchild (Javelin)
4 – Jermaisha Arnold (400m/4x400m)
3 – Tierra Robinson-Jones (400m/4x400m)
3 – Joniar Thomas (Heptathlon)
2 – Sanu Jallow (4x400m)
2 – Kennedy Wade (4x400m)
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Pat Henry
On Women’s Team Performance at NCAA Championships…
“We had a good effort. We’re the fifth best women’s team in the United States, so you can’t be too disappointed. We had some good efforts this weekend, and a couple surprises where I thought we would do a little bit better. For the most part, we were pretty close to doing what we were capable of doing, so I can’t be too disappointed. Lamara, our three-time national champion, was a surprise that she wasn’t able to clear that next bar, but she’s still the second best high jumper today, adding valuable points for our team. Our 4x400m runners ran pretty well, almost as good as they’ve run all year. We were second, which is a great accomplishment, but our quarter milers don’t like getting beat.”
On the Team’s Young Athletes…
“Overall, on the women’s side, I think our young people showed up and finally began to understand what I’ve been saying all year long. You’ve got to be ready to step up every time you step on the track. We had three freshmen that weren’t able to do that this week. I think we have the ability to come back and be a little bit stronger next year. When we account for the new people coming in and the people returning to the team, we’ll see how this team is able to do.”
To learn more about Texas A&M Track & Field/Cross Country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.