BIRMINGHAM – Texas A&M’s Tyra Gittens has been named the women’s SEC Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, an award that is voted upon by the conference coaches. Gittens, who is from Nashville, Tennessee, scored 20 points in three events during the SEC Championships that were held in Knoxville on the University of Tennessee campus.
“She’s an outstanding athlete, especially as a freshman to do as well as she has done,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “This young lady is going to be really good. She’s good now, but in time I think she is really going to develop into a great athlete.
“She heads into the NCAA Championships with one of the leading scores in the multi. She’s also done very well in her individual events and has looked really good. Besides her multi, she keeps improving in the high jump, long jump and hurdles. She just keeps getting better and better each time she competes.”
Gittens won the heptathlon with a career best score of 6,074 points, the best ever by a freshman during the collegiate season. The heptathlon tally set a Texas A&M record as well as a Trinidad & Tobago national record.
“When you start talking about all the young ladies who have ever done this event as freshmen, for her to be the best ever says quite a bit about her talent,” added Henry.
Besides ranking second among collegians in the heptathlon this season, Gittens also ranks fourth in the nation in the high jump, equal 13th in the long jump and 39th in the 100m hurdles. Among the SEC, the rankings for Gittens are No. 1 in the heptathlon, No. 2 in the high jump, No. 8 in the long jump, and No. 13 in the 100m hurdles.
Competing in the long jump the same day the SEC heptathlon concluded, Gittens improved her career best in the event to 21-2 ¾ (6.47) as she placed fifth for four points. On the final day of the SEC meet, Gittens cleared 5-10 ¾ (1.80) for third place in the high jump, adding six points to her impressive tally.
In producing a heptathlon score of 6,074 points, Gittens improved her previous best of 5,700 points from a runner-up finish at the Texas Relays in March. She bettered the Aggie school record of 6,038 points set by Annie Kunz during the 2016 Olympic Trials. In addition she topped the previous Trinidad & Tobago national record score of 5,962 points set in 2004 by Marsha Mark-Baird.
Gittens also generated Aggie top 10 performances in three individual events – 100m hurdles, high jump and long jump – during the conference meet.
A 13.21 in the 100m hurdles generated 1,093 points in the heptathlon and made her the No. 10 performer on the Aggie all-time list. In the high jump, a clearance of 6-1 ¼ (1.86) netted her 1,054 points and moved her to No. 3 performer with the equal No. 4 performance.
Prior to her 21-2 ¾ leap in the open long jump, Gittens set a career best of 20-10 ¾ (6.37) in the heptathlon long jump for 965 points. That performance ranked her No. 5 performer with the No. 7 performance on the Aggie all-time list.
Amid the series for Gittens in the open long jump she had three marks that made the A&M top 10 performance list. The 21-2 ¾ ranks No. 2, just behind the school record of 21-5 ¼ (6.53) set in 1997 by Adrien Sawyer. A mark of 21-2 ½ (6.46) is the No. 3 performance while a 21-1 ¼ (6.43) is the No. 7 performance, knocking her 20-10 ¾ effort to the No. 10 performance.
Already qualified for the NCAA Championships in the heptathlon with the second best score this season, Gittens also qualified in the long jump. She will contest the open long jump first, on Thursday, June 7, then begins the heptathlon on Friday, June 8.
2018 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Awards
Men
Runner of the Year: Grant Holloway, Florida
Field Athlete of the Year: Denzel Comenentia, Georgia
Freshman Runner of the Year: Dwight St. Hillaire, Kentucky
Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Anderson Peters, Mississippi State
Coach of the Year: Mike Holloway, Florida
Women
Runner of the Year: Karrisa Schweizer, Missouri
Field Athlete of the Year: Keturah Orji, Georgia
Freshman Runner of the Year: Sydney McLaughlin, Kentucky
Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Tyra Gittens, Texas A&M
Coach of the Year: Mike Holloway, Florida
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics