AUSTIN – Dalton Rowan became the first Aggie to advance to the NCAA Championship field from the NCAA West preliminary rounds at Myers Stadium on Thursday as he placed fifth in the discus with a season best effort of 186 feet, 3 inches. Later in the evening Hillary Montgomery finished ninth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 34:37.62 to earn her first berth to the NCAA Outdoor meet.
Texas A&M fared well in advancing 11 of 14 athletes to the second round of events this weekend in the 400 hurdles, 100 meters, 400m and 800m. Heat winners included Shamier Little and Gregory Coleman in the 400 hurdles, Aaliyah Brown in the 100, and Deon Lendore in the 400.
It will be the third trip to the NCAA Championships for Rowan, who was eager for a return trip in his senior year. He finished eighth as a freshman and seventh as a sophomore in the NCAA Championship discus, but missed qualifying last year as he placed 46th in the preliminary rounds after a sixth-place finish in the SEC meet.
“I want to give all the credit to assistant coach Juan De La Garza, he’s been helping me a lot in practice,” noted Rowan. “It’s nice to come back after a tough meet at the SEC’s. The competition was awesome and coach De La Garza helped me out a lot. I was more patient going into the ring. Now I want to help out the team at the NCAA Championships.”
After placing ninth in the SEC a couple of weeks ago with a 171-6 performance, Rowan opened with a 180-10 (55.13) in the third of three flights at Myers Stadium. In round two he improved to 182-7 (55.66), but moved from sixth place to ninth. In round three Rowan improved again, reaching the distance of 186-3 (56.77) to move up to fifth.
Texas Tech’s Kole Weldon produced the top mark of 196-1 (59.78) over Ryan Crouser of Texas (189-7) and Mitchell Cooper of Kansas (189-5). Aggie Jeff Bartlett threw in the second flight and had a best of 174-9 (53.26) on his first attempt to place 22nd overall among the field of 48.
Montgomery’s training came into play on a humid evening with temperatures in the low to mid 80s for the 9:30 p.m. race. Racing in a field of 48 runners, Montgomery was with the lead pack for a majority of the race.
“I hardly have the words to express how excited I am,” said Montgomery, who earned All-America honors at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall. “I’ve come a long way and worked extremely hard to get here. I’m just so thankful to God and my coaches for getting me to this point where I was just able to do what I’ve been doing all season.
“I knew that I was in shape and prepared as well as I could have been. I just had to run the way I’ve been training. I wasn’t as freaked out for the weather as I feel other people from other schools may have been. I knew what the weather was going to be like, and I know I’ve done hard work outs in this weather and have been fine. So, I was prepared to tough it out.”
In the late stages Montgomery remained among the top 12 in 10th place and moved up a position over the last couple of laps to claim ninth. Hannah Everson of Air Force won the race in 34:23.52 with New Mexico’s Alice Wright in second with a 34:25.04 while Dominique Scott of Arkansas placed third at 34:25.46. A&M’s Karis Jochen finished 40th (37:04.45) while Grace Fletcher did not finish.
“The priority was making it through in the 10k,”stated Montgomery. “But now with that goal accomplished, I’m going to focus just as equally on the 5k. I feel like I’m prepared to race well in that event too. I’ll just have to see how well I recover from tonight.”
Little ran her first 400 hurdle race ever without glasses in winning her heat with a time of 59.09, which ranked sixth overall among the 24 hurdlers advancing to Friday’s quarterfinal. A broken frame had Little wearing contacts for her first round race as she defeated Susan Meinders of Northern Colorado (59.76) and Missouri State’s Shani Adams (59.78).
In the men’s 400 hurdles Coleman posted a time of 51.32 to win his heat over Texas Tech’s Darien Tennon (52.06) and Oregon’s Ben Thiel (52.20). Running in the first heat from lane 2, Aikan Graham finished sixth with a time of 52.22 that left him trailing the final time qualifier by 0.04.
Lendore posted a winning time of 46.44, which ranked fourth best overall, while Bralon Taplin clocked 46.52 as runner-up in another heat to record the seventh best time in the opening round of the 400. DJ Zahn of Illinois was the only sprinter to produce a sub-46 second time with his 45.51.
A comfortable effort from Lendore had him bettering Nebraska’s Jake Bender (47.05) and Marquis Johnson of UW-Milwaukee (47.13). Taplin and USC frosh Ricky Morgan ran even to the line with Morgan having an edge at finish with a 46.51 while Carlton Anumnu of Texas placed third in 46.55.
Brown won the only heat of the women’s 100 meters that wasn’t wind-aided in posting an 11.34 (1.7 wind) to defeat the USC tandem of Ky Westbrook (11.38) and Destinee Brown (11.50). Also advancing by placing among the top three in their respective heats were Jennifer Madu (11.28w) and Ashton Purvis (11.34w). Olivia Ekpone ran 11.58w to place sixth in her heat.
Shavez Hart (10.10w) and Devin Jenkins (10.29w) each finished third in their heats of the men’s 100 to reach the quarterfinals. Hart finished by a 9.95w (2.6 wind) from John Teeters of Oklahoma State and a 10.03w from Carl Horsley of Cal State Northridge. Jenkins ran in the lane adjacent to the defending NCAA champion, Trayvon Bromell of Baylor, as he won the heat in a windy 9.94 (2.1 wind) with Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas second at 10.15w.
The men’s 800 had Hector Hernandez and Josh Hernandez advancing to the quarterfinals as both placed second in their heats. Josh turned in a 1:48.31 behind Iowa State’s Edward Kemboi (1:47.65) as they produced the top two times in the first round. Hector’s 1:49.39 had him trailing Arizona’s Collins Kibet (1:49.17) as they posted the fifth and sixth best marks advancing. Aggie Gaines Kinsey ran 1:51.09 to finish seventh in his heat, placing 33rd overall.
In other field events Latario Collie (25-3 ¼w) and Olabanji Asekun (25-1 ¼w) placed 16th and 17th in the men’s long jump, Brea Garrett (195-7) and Alison Ondrusek (186-11) were 20th and 29th in the women’s hammer. Taylor Stolt (19-5 ¼w) finished 30th in the women’s long jump, and Samuel McSwain placed 34th (6-9 ¾) in the high jump.
Finishing the first night with the men’s 10,000 meters, Ryan Miller placed 39th with a 32:08.12 while Austin Wells did not finish.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics