A&M men win Big 12 Track Title

Texas A&M produced 11 winning efforts on Sunday during the final day of the Big 12 Championships as the Aggies made its charge towards another set of conference team titles in front of 3,073 fans at R.V. Christian Track Complex.

The A&M men, who had seven victories on the final day, were successful in defending their 2011 title as they accumulated 150 points to better Texas by 19.

Prezel Hardy, Jr. led the effort as the men’s high point scorer. He swept the sprint titles with a windy 10.03 in the 100 and career best 20.33 in the 200 while also anchoring the Aggies 4 x 100 relay to a 39.00 victory.

“We had to have a lot of people doing really well today to win the men’s title,” Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said. “PJ had high point honors with a 100 and 200 victories, but we also needed the points we were able to score in a lot of events today. We still have some holes, but overall I was very pleased.”

The Aggie men repeated a sweep of the Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor team titles they achieved last season. The 150 points for A&M claimed this championship as Texas finished second with 131. They were followed by Oklahoma, 91; Kansas State 75; Texas Tech, 72; Baylor 65; Kansas, 64; Oklahoma State, 64; Iowa State, 54; and Missouri, 52.

Meanwhile, the Aggie women finished third with 128.5 points as Texas ended A&M’s run of five consecutive conference championships with 139 points as Kansas finished second with 129.5 points.

The rest of the women’s Big 12 team race included Baylor, 72; Texas Tech, 71; Oklahoma, 63; Missouri, 60; Iowa State, 58; Kansas State, 58; and Oklahoma State, 38.

“On the women’s side we did everything we could do today,” Henry noted. “Give a lot of credit to Texas for lining it up and getting after it here today. They didn’t have everything go right either. Kansas probably had the best meet I’ve seen KU have, and they deserved it. They worked very hard.”

Aggie sprinter Ashley Collier came away with high point honors by winning the 100 in a career best 11.01, finishing second in a very close 200 (22.89) and anchoring the A&M 4 x 100 to a sixth consecutive victory in a collegiate leading 42.99.

Collier edged out teammate Natosha Rogers by half a point for high point honors. Rogers scored 20 points as she claimed the 5,000 on Sunday in 15:57.17 after winning the 10,000 on Friday.

The Aggies repeated their sweep of the 4 x 100 relays with the women matching the collegiate leading time for 2012 with a 42.99 victory while the men posted a 39.00 winning time.

Texas A&M also swept the sprint hurdles with Donique’ Flemings running a windy 12.87 for the women’s 100 hurdle title while Wayne Davis II set a national record for Trinidad & Tobago with a career best of 13.37 in the 110 hurdles, which equals the A&M school record set by Larry Wade in 1998.

Deon Lendore claimed the 400 in a career best 45.13 while Henry Lelei lowered his school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to 8:38.90 with a convincing victory.

The Aggie men wrapped up the conference championship with a 3:03.04 win in the 4 x 400 as Lendore provided an anchor leg of 44.8 to hold off Baylor’s (3:03.40) challenge.

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