AUSTIN – A crew of 49 Aggies travel to Myers Stadium this week for the NCAA West preliminary rounds as Texas A&M, with the men ranked No. 2 and the women No. 9 nationally, take the first step in challenging for a national championship team title.
Action begins Thursday and continues through Saturday. Gates at Myers Stadium open at 10:30 a.m. each day of competition. General admission tickets for all three days are $35 for adults and $25 for college students (with valid student ID), youth (17 and under) and seniors. Single day tickets, which go on sale May 28, are $15 for adults and $10 for college students, youth and seniors.
The Aggie women, defending NCAA Outdoor team champions, have 22 athletes qualified for the meet with 29 entries in 15 events. The A&M men, who were third in the NCAA Outdoor meet last season after winning the 2013 national team title, have qualified 27 athletes with 33 entries in 18 events.
Texas A&M has claimed four men’s championship titles (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013) and four women’s championship titles (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014) over the past six years.
With field sizes of 48 athletes the goal is to finish among the top 12 in individual events in order to advance to the NCAA Championship weekend in Eugene, Oregon. Meanwhile, a field of 24 relay teams will be trimmed to a dozen.
“Half of the United States is coming to Austin to find out who the top 12 are in this area of the country, so it’s going to be a tremendous competition,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “It’s the time of the year where it doesn’t make any difference if you’re sick or healthy, it’s time to go.
“It’s good to have numbers and we have a lot qualified for this round. The challenge now is getting out of this round. You have to look at it like it’s a final. You get to compete on the track or in the ring with somebody. This is a final round, so you have to be prepared do your absolute best and then you’ll advance to the next round if you do that.”
The Aggies feature four defending individual national champions in Deon Lendore (400m), Kamaria Brown (200m), Shamier Little (400 hurdles) and Shelbi Vaughan (discus). A&M also is the defending NCAA champion in the women’s 4×100 and men’s 4×400 relay and the Aggies were runner-up last season in the men’s 4×100 and women’s 4×400.
Lendore enters the NCAA West preliminary round as the collegiate leader in the 400 meters with a time of 44.41 seconds, which ranks third in the world for 2015, as he claimed his third SEC Outdoor title and fourth conference outdoor victory. Lendore became just the fourth sprinter to capture three SEC Outdoor 400m titles and the first since 1956.
“After having a not so wonderful start to my season, all I was thinking about was having a healthy race during the SEC final,” noted Lendore. “I thought I would run around 44.6, but to win with a 44.41 I’m happy that I was able to run that well.”
A&M is the top seed in the 4×100 (38.74) and 4×400 (3:02.19) relays, where Lendore runs the anchor leg in each. The Aggies defended their SEC title in the 4×100 with a collegiate-leading time while the 4×400 unit finished fourth as Lendore supplied a split of 44.19 in moving the team from seventh to fourth.
“The anchor leg on the 4×100 during the SEC Championship was a sign to me that I was actually getting back into shape,” stated Lendore. “To be able to stay up with those guys, in a stacked field with a race that was really hot, I knew the day was going to be good.”
Vaughan improved her SEC Championship record by three feet in the discus to 211-8 (64.52) on her final throw as she won a third consecutive conference title, becoming just the second thrower to win three SEC titles in the women’s discus and the first since 2006.
Undefeated this season, Vaughan moved up to No. 5 on the all-time collegian list with her 211-8, which also ranks eighth in the world for the 2015 season and is the current U.S. leader.
In the 400 hurdles Little improved her career best to 54.68 as she defeated the defending SEC champion, Kendra Harrison of Kentucky. It was the third league title for Little, who won the SEC Outdoor 400m title in 2014 and added the SEC Indoor 400m crown in 2015. The time by Little in the 400 hurdles improved upon her school record of 55.07 she set in winning the 2014 NCAA championship and took over the 2015 world lead for a week and is the current U.S. and collegiate leader.
Brown finished runner-up in the 200 at the SEC meet, where her 22.64 ranks second in the NCAA West, while supplying key legs to the Aggie 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Brown ran the third leg of A&M’s 4×100 that set a collegiate-leading time of 42.61 as the Aggies broke the meet record of 42.80 set by LSU in 2008.
In the 4×400 Brown supplied a 50.58 second leg along with a 51.79 anchor by Little in producing a season best time of 3:32.40 to finish second in the SEC meet.
Among the men’s entries the Aggies have someone in 18 of the 20 events being contested in Austin. That covers all of the field events and all the running events except for the 1,500 meters and 110 hurdles.
A&M’s men entries that are seeded among the top 12 of the NCAA West heading into the preliminary rounds include Shavez Hart in the 100 (10th, 10.10) and 200 meters (3rd, 20.23), Bralon Taplin in the 400 (2nd, 44.89), the tandem of Hector Hernandez (9th, 1:47.75) and Josh Hernandez (11th, 1:47.97) in the 800, and Gregory Coleman in the 400 hurdles (6th, 50.22).
In field events the A&M men entries that are seeded in the top 12 include the pole vault duo of Audie Wyatt (6th, 17-11 ¾) and Chase Wolfle (10th, 17-8 ½), Olabanji Asekun (2nd, 26-4 ½w) in the long jump, Latario Collie in the long jump (6th, 25-9 ½) and triple jump (1st, 56-7 ¼w), Austin Cook (11th, 212-6) in the hammer and the javelin combination of Ioannis Kyriazis (2nd, 257-3) and Devin Bogert (4th, 246-3).
Top 12 seeds for the Aggie women include Aaliyah Brown (8th, 11.24) and Jennifer Madu (12th, 11.40) in the 100, Hillary Montgomery (8th, 33:34.58) in the 10,000 meters, and the javelin duo of Maggie Malone (4th, 171-10) and Kristen Clark (5th, 170-8).
A&M has five entered in the women’s javelin where they rank among the top 30. Joining Malone and Clark are Kendall Munoz (17th, 159-1), Audrey Malone (20th, 157-4) and Krystyn Bradley (27th, 154-2).
One Aggie qualifier to the NCAA Championship field in Eugene is Jena Hemann in the heptathlon, where she is seeded eighth among the field of 24 with her career best score of 6,002 points. Hemann will contest the high jump during the preliminary rounds in Austin.