By: Tyler Pounds, Athletics Communications
NEW ORLEANS – Texas A&M track & field’s Tyra Gittens and Athing Mu were named to the United States Track & Field Cross Country Association (USTFCCCA) National awards list, the organization announced Tuesday.
Less than a week after claiming national titles in their respective events, Gittens was named the USTFCCCA Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year and Mu earned USTFCCCA Women’s National Track Athlete of the Year.
The Aggie duo scored a combined 36.5 points, nearly 58% of Texas A&M’s team total of 63 points.
Gittens scored 24 points winning the heptathlon (6,285), finishing second in the long jump (21-11/6.68m) and third in the high jump (6-1.5/1.87m). The junior finished the meet as the top female point scorer and set a collegiate record as the most points scored at an NCAA outdoor meet solely in field events.
Earlier in the season, Gittens became the third best performer in collegiate history in the heptathlon winning the Southeastern Conference title with 6,418 points. During the multi-event, she cleared 22-10 (6.96m) in the long jump to become the fourth best performer in collegiate history in the event and cleared 6-4.75 (1.95m) in the high jump to equal the sixth best performer in collegiate history. She became the first woman in world history to achieve such marks in the long jump and high jump within the same heptathlon.
In total, Gittens set Texas A&M records in the long jump, high jump and heptathlon during the 2021 outdoor season.
Mu, set an individual collegiate record winning the 400m and was a member of the relay that set the all-time 4x400m collegiate record to score 12.5 points at the NCAA Championships. The freshman bettered her previous collegiate record by .11 seconds to win with a time 49.57, matching the largest margin of victory in an NCAA meet. She followed by anchoring the relay of Tierra Robinson-Jones, Charokee Young and Jaevin Reed in comeback fashion splitting an astonishing 48.85 to claim the title in a time of 3:22.34.
At the SEC Championships, she won the 400m (49.84) and ran on the winning 4x400m relay (3:26.17) to score 12.5 points.
The middle-distance sprinter ended the 2021 season with three collegiate records, the 400m, 800m (1:57.73) and 4x400m. In total, she set five individual all-time top 10 marks, including four in the 400m alone (No. 1/49.57, No. 2/49.68, No. 5/49.84 and No. 8/50.04).
Gittens and Mu completed the sweep after claiming the USTFCCCA National Women’s Indoor Athlete of the Year accolades in March.