SAN ANTONIO – Texas A&M swept the team titles at the UTSA Roadrunner Invitational amid seven victories and eight runner-up performances on Saturday at the Park West Athletic Complex.
The Aggie women totaled 178.5 points to top Baylor (151.5) and Kansas State (148) while the Texas A&M men scored 168 points to win comfortably over Baylor (104) and Kansas State (100) among the eight teams in the meet.
“It was really a hard meet to win,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “It doesn’t look like it on paper, but there was a lot of competition here and our people did a good job. Leading into a big meet with the Texas Relays next week, we did some good things here that will help us solidify some things for next week.”
Securing victories for the Aggies were Tahar Triki in the men’s long jump, Tyra Gittens in the women’s long jump, Zephyr Stephens in the 2,000m steeplechase, the women’s 4×100 relay, Gabe Oladipo in the men’s discus, Ilolo Izu in the 400m hurdles, and Diamond Spaulding in the women’s 200m.
“We had a lot of standout performances today,” added Henry. “Our new jumper Triki won the long jump with a big jump of 25-7 and Izu had a huge run on his opener in the hurdles. The women’s 200m was outstanding with Spaulding getting under 23 seconds and we had some nice depth behind her. The men’s 4×400 with our second group running 3:04 without any of the four guys that ran at NCAA Indoor is big time.”
An impressive 50.42 from Izu won the men’s 400 hurdles over a 51.28 from Kerry Gleason of SFA. The time by Izu ranks No. 12 on the Aggie all-time list and is the early season collegiate leader. It improved his previous best of 51.11 from last year’s SEC Championships.
“I haven’t been doing hurdles that much over the past month,” stated Izu. “Being able to come out here and run the hurdles in that time felt really good. I was able to hit my race pattern and do everything I needed to do today.
“I knew coming into this meet I was going to finish this race with a PR. Coming off the backstretch I started to chill a little bit and noticed this feels a lot faster than normal.”
A crew of Texas A&M hurdlers finished 3-4-5 behind Izu. They included Infinite Tucker (51.41), Jackson Davis (51.79) and DeWitt Thomas (51.81). Lauren Lawless ran 59.97 to place fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Spaulding clocked a 22.98 (2.0 wind) in winning the 200. She led a 27-point haul by the Aggies with a 1-2-4-5 finish. Brenessa Thompson followed in 23.04 while Amber Ivyand Julia Madubuike each ran 23.30 in placing fourth and fifth.
“My effort was pretty good,” noted Spaulding. “I still felt like I could have done more on the curve. I was proud of my group in how we raced in the 200 today. We’re never satisfied and always hungry.”
The point production from Texas A&M in the 200 pushed the Aggies into the team lead over Kansas State by a half-point margin, 144.5 to 144, with two events remaining.
Another 26 points followed in the women’s 3,000m off a 2-3-4-5-6 finish for Texas A&M to secure the team victory. Lauryn Barrientos led the way with as runner-up in 10:04.43. Following were Maddie Vondra (10:15.94), Shelby McNeel (10:27.30), Kelsey Persyn (10:27.78) and Olivia Arriaza (10:35.38).
Aggie newcomer Triki, competing on his birthday, won the long jump with a windy leap of 25-7 ¼ (7.80) on his first attempt with a tailwind of 2.1. His best wind-legal performance was a 25-2 (7.67) in the second round. Runner-up to Triki was a 25-4 ½ (7.73) by Akron’s Jordan Latimer.
Gittens claimed the women’s long jump with a 20-3 ½ (6.18), which ranks No. 11 on the Aggie all-time list. Also scoring in the event for the Aggies were Ciynamon Stevenson in fourth place (19-4 ¾w) and Taryn Milton in eighth place (18-5w).
The men’s discus was won by Oladipo with a throw of 178-0 (54.26) as teammates Brody Gowing finished fourth at 172-7 (52.61) and Josh Brown placed 10th with a 163-9 (49.92).
The first track event of the meet included a 1-2-3 sweep by Texas A&M in the men’s steeplechase. Seagraves led the trio with a 6:01.31 and was followed by Raymond Gonzales (6:03.01) and Sam Erickson (6:03.19). Later in the meet Eli Canal placed third in the 3,000m with a 9:02.02 clocking.
In the 4×100 relay the Aggie women won in 43.49 with a foursome of Ivy, Spaulding, Thompson and Madubuike. Baylor finished second in 44.64 with UTSA third at 45.44.
A very close finish in the men’s 4×100 had TCU getting the victory in 39.68 over Stephen F. Austin (39.71) and Texas A&M (39.73). The Aggies ran with a foursome of Will Williams, Mylik Kerley, Bryce Deadmon and Kyree Johnson.
The Aggies finished off the meet with a pair of runner-up efforts in the 4×400 relay. In the men’s race TCU and Texas A&M were both timed in 3:04.54 with the edge going to the Horned Frogs while Baylor was third in 3:05.02. Running for the Aggies were Deadmon, Richard Rose, Colby Zamzow and Johnson.
A 3:39.89 by the Aggie women placed second to Baylor’s 3:35.44. Texas A&M ran with a line-up that included Julia Madubuike, Jarra Owens, Lawless and Brittany Parker.
Serena Brown threw the discus 182-11 (55.76) as runner-up to a 200-5 (61.08) by Kansas State’s Shadae Lawrence. Celine Markert placed sixth with a toss of 158-0 (48.17).
Garrett Cragin cleared 6-10 ¾ (2.10) as runner-up in the high jump. Kansas State’s Tejaswin Shankar won the event with a 7-4 ½ (2.25) clearance. Kansas State swept the top four places in the women’s high jump, totaling 29 points, with Clare Gibson getting the win at 5-8 ¾ (1.75). Kirby Matocha tied for fifth place with a 5-5 (1.65) clearance.
Tyler Guillory ran 14.22 in the 110 hurdles, placing second to a 13.95 by UTSA’s Patrick Prince. In the women’s 100m hurdles the Aggies finished in scoring places 3-4-8 with Chinyere Njoku (13.76), Tyra Gittens (13.77) and Zharia Moore (13.96).
Jacob Wooten finished second in the pole vault, clearing 17-10 ½ (5.45). Akron’s Matthew Ludwig won at 18-4 ½ (5.60). Aggie Avery Jones placed seventh at 15-11. In the women’s vault, Sara Kathryn Stevens placed third in making 12-11 ½ (3.95) while Akron went 1-2 with Lucy Bryan getting the victory at 13-11 ½ (4.25).
Williams placed fourth in the 100 with a time of 10.47. TCU’s Jalen Miller won the race in 10.29 ahead of Baylor’s Malik Wilson (10.38) and another TCU sprinter, Emeilo Ferguson (10.40). Virginia Kerley placed third in the women’s 100 with an 11.81, finishing behind a pair of Baylor sprinters, Raven Grant (11.75) and Sydney Washington (11.77).
Zamzow won his section of the 400m in 47.48 and placed fourth overall. Baylor’s Wil London claimed the victory in 45.90 with teammate Howard Fields runner-up in 46.43. Aggies scoring in the event included Austin Warren (48.20) and JaQwae Ellison (48.25) in seventh and eighth while Efrain Hernandez (48.34) placed ninth overall.
Margaret Hoffman led an Aggie crew in the women’s 800, placing third in 2:13.91 while Blake Chiuminetta finished third in the men’s race with a 1:53.55. In the women’s 400m, Brittany Parker won her section in 56.37 and placed seventh overall while teammate Jean Jenkins placed third in the same section at 57.22 and was ninth overall.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics