Out of the forty nine Aggies who participated in the NCAA West Preliminary rounds in Austin, twenty eight of them will be moving on to Eugene, Oregon to compete for the NCAA Outdoor Championship.  Texas A&M will be represented by 15 men competing in 11 events while the A&M women have 13 athletes competing in 10 events.
Leading the Aggies by gaining the top time in the 400m dash was defending NCAA Champion, Deon Lendore. The A&M sprinter posted a time of 45.40, edging his University of Texas opponent, Zack Bilderback. Lendore commented on his mentality heading to Eugene.
“Nationals will not be an easy one, there is going to be a lot of great talent there,” said Lendore. “It’s all about just keeping my head on and not forgetting that it’s my race to lose at the end of the day.”
Deon Lendore will be joined by Deon Hickey, Bralon Taplin and Gregory Coleman in the 4×400 relay team who ran a time of 3:03.66 at the preliminary rounds which was good for second in their field.
The women’s 4×100 relay team shined on Saturday when they finished first with an impressive time of 43.29. Three of the four in the relay team also qualified to compete in the open 100m dash at the championship weekend. Aaliyah Brown, Jennifer Madu and Ashton Purvis recorded the fourth, fifth and sixth fasted times in the women’s field to advance.
A&M’s best showing in the preliminary rounds may have come from the women’s 200m dash competition. The Aggies posted the top three times on Friday and advanced four to the quarterfinals that took place on Saturday.
Kamaria Brown had a career best time of 22.50 which catapulted her into first place and advanced her to the championship weekend. Joining her will be Aaliyah Brown and Ashton Purvis who finished fourth and third respectively.
Texas A&M will now have a ten day break before the NCAA Outdoor Championships commence on June 10^th in Eugene, Oregon. The Aggies will be gunning for yet another NCAA Championship and are primed and ready to accomplish that ultimate goal.
NCAA Championships – Texas A&M qualifiers
MEN (15 athletes, 11 events, 15 entries)
100 – Shavez Hart
200 – Shavez Hart
400 – Deon Lendore, Bralon Taplin
800 – Josh Hernandez
400 Hurdles – Gregory Coleman
4×100 – Texas A&M (Devin Jenkins, Hart, Elijah Morrow, Lendore)
4×400 – Texas A&M (Deon Hickey, Taplin, Coleman, Lendore)
Pole Vault – Chase Wolfle, Audie Wyatt
Triple Jump – Latario Collie, Olabanji Asekun
Discus – Dalton Rowan
Javelin – Ioannis Kyriazis, Devin Bogert
WOMEN (13 athletes, 10 events, 15 entries)
100 – Aaliyah Brown, Jennifer Madu, Ashton Purvis
200 – Kamaria Brown, Ashton Purvis, Aaliyah Brown
10,000 – Hillary Montgomery
400 Hurdles – Shamier Little
4×100 – Texas A&M (Madu, Purvis, K. Brown, A. Brown)
4×400 – Texas A&M (K. Brown, Olivia Ekpone, Ebony Crear, Little)
Shot Put – Brea Garrett
Discus – Shelbi Vaughan
Javelin – Maggie Malone, Kristen Clark
Heptathlon – Jena Hemann