The Texas A&M track and field team head west this weekend to spend Good Friday in the Bay Area running in this year’s Stanford Invitational.
The No. 1 Aggies are fresh off a historic performance at the Texas Relays, they claimed an impressive 10 wins and the men were named Most Outstanding Team.
“[Our performance last weekend] may be the strongest showing any team has ever had in the history of the Texas Relays,” head track coach Pat Henry said. “To go over there and win the 4×100, 4×400, 4×800 and the Distance Medley on the men’s side — nobody’s ever done that before. On the ladies’ side we looked real good too. We got beat by about a foot by Texas in the 4×100, we won the 4×200 and we’re just not healthy enough to run the 4×400. Overall, the team did very, very well in Austin.”
Senior sprinter Deon Lendore and junior discus thrower Shelbi Vaughn earned SEC Athlete of the Week honors after their accomplishments at the Relays. Lendore, last year’s Bowerman Winner, earned his first two career victories at the Texas Relay in anchoring both the men’s 4×100 and 4×400 meter relay teams. Lendore helped the Aggies set a collegiate leading mark of 38.91 seconds in the sprint relay and a world leading time of 3:02.19 in the 4×400.
Vaughn dominated the competition in Austin, as she finished a full 14.5 feet ahead of second place. Her toss of 201 feet, 8 inches was the third best mark of her career. Vaughn is currently the American leader in the discus.
“Shebi is just a great competitor,” Henry said. “When she gets in the ring, she’s trying to be the absolute best that she can be … You know that about Shelbi every time. She’s also learning how to throw the hammer right now and she’s getting better at that all the time. She’s putting a lot of effort into what she’s doing right now. Shelbi is one of the truly great athletes at this institution. She probably has as good a chance of making the United States Olympic team as anybody we’ve got.”
The Texas Relays in Austin is the closest thing the Texas A&M track and field team has to a home meet during the outdoor season, and now the Aggies will follow it up with one of their farthest road trips on the schedule.
