Every medal color shined brightly for the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track and field teams at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, during the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 14-15. The women’s team finished the meet in seventh with 27 points, while the men placed 10th with 20 points.
Three athletes earned medals – gold for junior Jaiya Covington in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, silver for freshman Sofia Yakushina in the women’s pentathlon, and bronze for redshirt senior Auhmad Robinson in the men’s 400m. Both teams were ranked in the top 15 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Poll and entered the meet with the men at No. 3 and the women at No. 13. The Aggies flew a 23-athlete squad to the East Coast for the ultimate indoor collegiate title after the men’s Southeastern Conference Indoor Championship win on March 1.
Even though the Aggies picked up 15 First Team All-America and six Second Team All-America honors, they would not top the podium until the final day of competition. Covington dug deep to dip under the 8-second threshold for the first time in her career in the 60m hurdles to strike gold. Covington ran a school record in the preliminary round at 7.94 seconds, only to shatter that record less than 24 hours later, sprinting in 7.90. The marker now holds Covington’s personal best, an A&M All-Time No. 1 record and a facility record.
Yakushina fought to a silver medal finish in the women’s pentathlon on Friday, climbing from fifth overall to second in the final event. She earned 4,412 points to become the first freshman since 2014 to finish National Runner-up in the women’s pentathlon. Her five-event campaign began on the track, where she ran a personal best of 8.33 for second in the 60m hurdles. On the field, Yakushina topped the rankings in the high jump with a leap of 1.84 meters, a personal best and 13th in both the shot put and long jump, throwing 11.69 meters and jumping 5.81 meters. A time of 2:14.87 in the 800m, good for fifth in the event, helped the freshman close out her first NCAA Indoors with a First Team All-America honor.
Friday for the men’s team saw no new hardware, but a team of five added 10 points to their championship run. Freshman Alexsandr Solovev, the A&M All-Time No. 1 record holder, barely missed the men’s pole vault final podium, where he cleared 5.61 meters for fourth place.
Freshman Luca Santorum, senior Cutler Zamzow, senior Sam Whitmarsh and senior Cooper Cawthra broke the school record with a 9:17.74 mark in the men’s distance medley relay for fourth overall, claiming the final points of the day for the Aggies.
Saturday opened with the women’s events and the team would finish seventh overall, coming home with seven First Team All-Americas and two Second Team All-Americas.
Bii, the recently crowned SEC gold medalist in the women’s triple jump, leaped 13.63 meters to finish fourth overall in the final.
After Covington’s golden performance, the women closed out their NCAA performance with the women’s 4x400m relay. Dickson, Montgomery, Smith and Arnold teamed up to race to fifth overall in 3:30.06, clenching the final points for the women.
The Aggie men took center stage after the completion of the women’s events to claim eight First Team All-America and four Second Team All-America designations.
The sole medal for the men’s team was earned by Robinson, who ran a 45.54 mark in the men’s 400m to earn bronze. Robinson’s teammate, senior Antonie Nortje, also earned points in the same event with a seventh place in 46.25.
Junior Ja’Qualon Scott claimed the final two points of the day for the men, racing to a mark of 7.57 for seventh overall in the men’s 60m hurdles and for the men’s team final finish of 10th overall.
Heartbreak hit the nation’s No. 1 seeded men’s 4x400m relay when A&M was disqualified in the final due to a ruling on impeding the Arkansas runner on the first leg, which caused Arkansas to drop the baton.
Returning to the Lone Star state, the Aggies will open the outdoor season at the Park West Athletics Complex at the University of Texas at San Antonio on March 21-22.
