BATON ROUGE – Texas A&M, with its men’s and women’s teams both nationally ranked No. 1, claimed the first team title of the SEC Relays, producing 136 points in the combined team scoring at Bernie Moore Stadium on Saturday.
Host LSU finished second with 115 points and were followed by Arkansas (102), Mississippi State (84), Alabama (45), Mississippi (29.5), Tennessee (24.5), Kentucky (19), and Vanderbilt (17).
“Just a great effort for our whole team today,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “It’s about what you contribute to the team and we had a whole lot of people contribute today. It makes for a great team win for us.”
After opening the relay events with a pair of collegiate records in the sprint medley relay on Friday, the Aggies closed out the inaugural SEC Relays with a pair of wins in the 4×400 relays. The women won in a season best time of 3:27.72 while the men generated a world-leading 3:00.74.
Two more wins on the day had Garrett Cragin taking the high jump at 7-0 ½ (2.15) and Jeffrey Prothro winning the triple jump with a windy 53-5 (16.28w). That completed a sweep of the men’s jumping events for Texas A&M after victories from Audie Wyatt (17-9 ¼) in the pole vault and Will Williams (26-2 ¾w) in the long jump on Friday.
“This meet helped us leading into the SEC Championships in two weeks,” noted Henry. “We found out more things about our team and who can compete in a big-time environment. That’s who you take to the conference championships.”
Finishing the meet with a world-leading time in the 4×400, the Aggie foursome of Richard Rose (45.8), Fred Kerley (43.7), Devin Dixon (46.22) and Mylik Kerley (44.99) posted a 3:00.74 that improved their season best time by a full second. They become the third fastest unit with the fourth best performance on the Texas A&M all-time list.
LSU ran 3:02.80 as runner-up with Arkansas third in 3:04.20 and Mississippi State fourth at 3:06.95. A second Aggie crew placed fifth in 3:10.37 with the quartet of Robert Grant, Infinite Tucker, Efrain Hernandez and JaQwae Ellison.
The women’s 4×400 crew included Briyahna Desrosiers (51.9), Kadecia Baird (52.4), Jazmine Fray (51.45) and Jaevin Reed (51.91). In running 3:27.72 they became the fourth fastest unit with the fifth fastest performance on the Aggie all-time list.
Finishing behind Texas A&M were Alabama (3:28.65), LSU (3:31.28), and Arkansas (3:32.11). The Aggies are currently the fourth fastest collegiate team this season.
In other relay events held Saturday, Texas A&M men placed second in the shuttle hurdles (58.57) and distance medley (9:54.19) as the women finished second in the 4×100 (43.01) and third in the distance medley (11:46.94). The men added a fourth in the 4×100 (39.31) as the women were fourth in the shuttle hurdles (55.58). Both squads were disqualified in the 4×200 after placing second in each race.
The men’s shuttle hurdles relay included Jordan Johnson, Lindon Victor, Infinite Tucker and Tyler Guillory for the Aggies as they finished behind the 57.43 for Mississippi State. In the distance medley a crew of Taylor Clayton (3:01.65), Ilolo Izu (45.74), Gaines Kinsey (1:52.00) and Jon Bishop (4:14.80) were runner-up to a 9:48.93 by Arkansas.
The Aggie women’s sprint relay line-up included Diamond Spaulding, Jaevin Reed, Brenessa Thompson and Aaliyah Brown. LSU won the race in 42.12 as they equaled the collegiate record set this season by Oregon.
Aleia Hobbs anchored the 4×100 for LSU and later won the non-scored 100m in 10.85 (2.0 wind), the world leader for 2017 as well as the second fastest collegiate time ever.
In the women’s distance medley relay the Aggie quartet included Arin Rice (3:36.78), Glorilisha Carter (53.65), Katie Willard (2:09.67) and Hannah Campbell (5:06.81). They finished behind Mississippi State (11:20.59) and Arkansas (11:30.93) while Vanderbilt (11:50.32) was fourth.
Running on the Aggie men’s 4×100 were Will Williams, Fred Kerley, Elijah Morrow and Jace Comick. The 39.31 they ran placed fourth overall behind LSU (38.88), Arkansas (38.95) and Athletics Canada (39.19). Comick later raced in the 100m and ran 10.39w (3.2 wind) to place fourth in his section, which was won in 9.93 by Christian Coleman of Tennessee.
LSU women set a stadium record in the shuttle hurdles relay with a 53.13 victory over Arkansas (55.25), Mississippi State (55.46) and Texas A&M (55.58). The Aggie foursome included Lauren Lawless, Chinyere Njoku, Zharia Moore and Shaina Burns.
In addition to winning the men’s jumps relay, Texas A&M also claimed the men’s throws relay and the women’s throws relay while placing second in the women’s jumps relay.
Prothro’s 53-5w enabled him to defeat Clive Pullen of Arkansas in the triple jump, who had one attempt measure 52-4 ¾w (15.97) in the opening round. Pullen, a two-time NCAA Indoor champion, fouled his next two jumps and then passed his three remaining attempts.
Cragin was the only high jumper to get over 7-0 ½ (2.15) on a very windy day, making the bar on his third attempt. Three other jumpers were in competition at that height with Cragin, but they had to settle with a best of 6-11 (2.11).
Audrey Malone placed second in the women’s javelin with a throw of 172-10 (52.68) and she was followed by teammates Madalaine Stulce (164-10), Kristen Clark (157-11) and Shelby Poncik (145-1) as they finished third, fourth and sixth. Rebekah Wales of LSU won the event at 186-4 (56.80).
Sam Hardin led the Aggie men’s javelin crew with a third place effort at 212-0 as William Petersson (207-1) and Lindon Victory (194-11) finished fourth and fifth. Austin Cook placed sixth in the hammer (205-5) while Jeff Bartlett finished sixth in the shot put (55-9).
Ciynamon Stevenson (40-9 ½) placed sixth in the women’s triple jump. Finishing 7-8-9 in the pole vault were Emily Gunderson (13-4 ¼), Augusta Thomason (12-10 ¼) and Sara Kathryn Stevens (12-10 ¼). Serena Brown (45-8 ½) added an eight place in the shot put with Celine Markert (44-10 ¼) finishing ninth.
In a non-scoring 1,500m the Texas A&M tandem of Alex Riba (3:54.74) and Cameron Villarreal (3:56.48) finished fourth and fifth as LSU’s Blair Henderson won the race in 3:49.03.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics