Credit to Matthew McGinnis | Student Assistant, Athletics Communications – 12thman.com
BATON ROUGE, La. – The women’s 4x400m team and Lamara Distin claimed conference titles to lead the Aggie women to a third-place finish as the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track & field teams completed the final day of the SEC Outdoor Championship meet at Bernie Moore Stadium on Saturday.
The Aggie women scored 86 points to result in a third-place finish, their highest at the conference meet since finishing second in 2019.
The men’s team racked up 73 points to place fifth, their highest SEC finish since placing fourth in 2019.
The team’s highlight of the day came in the last event of the meet, as the women’s 4x400m relay squad reclaimed the event title with their time of 3:26.64, the No. 12 performance in school history. Kennedy Wade got the Aggies off to a strong start, handing off to Tierra Robinson-Jones, who was coming off a second-place performance in the 400m. Robinson-Jones brought the team to the lead with a big move on the back curve before handing off to Sanu Jallow, who recorded a split of 52.08 to hold the lead going into the anchor leg. Jermaisha Arnold got the baton for the final leg and was shoved from behind at the 200m mark. Arnold stayed strong, maintaining control on her way to a split of 50.41, the fastest of the race, to secure the victory for the Aggies. Since joining the conference in 2013, the Aggie women have won four mile relay titles and finished on the podium of the event seven times.
Distin, the national leader in the high jump, cleared 6-3.25/1.91m to top the rest of the field, winning her fourth-straight SEC title. The win is her second-consecutive outdoor conference championship to go along with her two indoor SEC titles. She has finished as the top collegian in her last 14 competitions, dating back to April 2022. Also placing in the high jump competition, Ally Andress cleared 5-9.25/1.76m, her second-best outdoor mark ever, to place seventh. The duo of Distin and Andress added 12 points to the Aggie women’s team total, helping them to their podium finish.
In the men’s pole vault, the Aggies earned the silver and bronze medals from Jack Mann III and Zach Davis, respectively, both recording a mark of 17-8.5/5.40m, while Connor Gregston placed seventh at 17-0.75/1.76m. Mann entered the competition at 16-10.75/5.15m and didn’t miss an attempt until he failed to clear 18-0.5/5.55m, leading to his silver medal. His runner-up clearance is a personal best, topping his previous best mark of 17-6.5/5.35m to become the No. 9 performer in school history. Davis’ bronze medal performance made him the No. 10 performer in school history, as his clearance was an outdoor personal best. Both men also medaled at the SEC indoor meet, tying for the bronze medal. Rounding out the vaulting trio, Gregston’s mark was his second-highest clearance ever, just one centimeter off his lifetime best of 17-1/5.21m from the LSU Alumni Gold meet.
Robinson-Jones clocked a personal best in the 400m, crossing the line in 50.54 to earn the silver medal. The time is a personal best, passing 2011 Bowerman Award winner Jessica Beard as the No. 3 performer in school history. Robinson-Jones adds to her SEC medal count, as she also won bronze at the indoor conference meet. Arnold also scored in the 400m, recording a time of 50.98 for a fourth-place finish, adding five points to the Aggie women’s point total.
Sam Whitmarsh, the returning silver medalist in the 800m, added another silver medal to his collection, clocking 1:46.77, a season-best time for the sophomore. The silver medal makes Whitmarsh the third Aggie man to win multiple SEC medals in the outdoor 800m, joining Devin Dixon (2017, 2018, 2019) and Hector Hernandez (2014, 2016), and gives the Aggies their seventh straight SEC medal in the event, going back to 2016.
On the distance side, Eric Casarez placed fifth in the 5000m with a time of 14:12.44. The finish is his highest placement at an SEC meet ever. Casarez has scored in four SEC finals in his career as an Aggie.
The 12 and a half lap race was his second of the weekend, as he placed seventh in the 10,000m on Thursday night, adding to his point contribution for the Aggie men.
The men’s 4x100m team of DeVante Mount, Ryan Martin, Isaiah Teer and Jordan Chopane finished fifth in the race, clocking 39.27. The time is a season-best for the team, topping their previous best of 39.29 from the Mt. SAC Relays.
Finishing sixth in the 400m hurdles, James Smith II crossed the finish line in 49.47, his fourth-fastest time ever. Making his return from injury in April, last year’s short hurdle runner-up made a quick return to the track to add three points to the Aggie men’s team point total.
The Aggie men’s 4x400m relay team was the sixth team across the line with a time of 3:03.48. The team of Ashton Schwartzman, Omajuwa Etiwe, DeMarco Escobar and Auhmad Robinson recorded Texas A&M’s third-fastest time of the season to end the day on the men’s side.
In the women’s 4x100m, Jania Martin, Camryn Dickson, Leeah Burr and Semira Killebrew combined to run 44.14, good for seventh place. Killebrew and Dickson went on to run the open 100m, going seventh and eighth, respectively. Killebrew’s time of 11.25 is her second-best time ever, while Dickson’s 11.28 clocking registers as her No. 2 performance ever.
Jaiya Covington, running in the high hurdles, clocked 13.18 to finish seventh overall. Covington has run under 13.20 in the 100m hurdles four times this season.
Cooper Cawthra placed eighth in the 1500m, clocking 3:47.07 to earn a point for the Aggie men. Cawthra entered the homestretch out of contention for points but dipped at the line to snag the eighth-place finish by one one-hundredth of a second.
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Pat Henry
On the Team’s Performance on Day Three of the SEC Championship Meet…
“Our team is starting to mature. We did some really good things today. Though there are also some things we can do better. We need to score in the finals that we qualify in. We had a couple events that I think we could’ve finished a little bit higher. This team is getting a little bit better all the time. If we didn’t score, it wasn’t because of a lack of effort or performance. We got better in almost every event. I was pleased with what we did today. I think that we can get much better, and we have the time to get better over the next month.”