The Aggie men and women took team victories in the Charlie Thomas Invitational this weekend at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station.
The Texas A&M men scored 151 points, almost doubling second place UCLA (83.5). South Plains (72), Baylor (69), and Houston (62.5) rounded out the top five for the men’s side.
The Aggie women totaled 138 points to finish ahead of Baylor (123), Clemson (97), Rice (83) and UCLA (79).
“This is a good field of people,” A&M head coach Pat Henry told 12thman.com. “Any time you have teams like UCLA, Clemson and Baylor it’s going to be a good meet. We put pressure on people and gained a lot of ground, it makes them get out and get after it.”
Combined, A&M teams finished the meet with six first place finishes and eight runner-ups.
Freshman Danyel White had a hand in two first place finishes. Her 23.14 second 200m dash edged the meet record of 23.18, and she ran a 53.25 second split to help the Aggies win the 4X400 alongside Jaevin Reed (53.82), Briyahna Desrosiers (53.55), and Kadecia Baird (52.92).
“I really wanted to stay focused,” White told 12thman.com. “It’s hard sometimes as a freshman, and the other girls are dropping mad times. It was really fun to run the relay and especially since it was neck and neck. Coming into college I was really excited to walk into a challenge. As long as coach is happy, I’m happy.”
Victories for the Texas A&M men included Devin Dixon (1:48.76) in the 800m, Cameron Villarreal (4:04.58) in the mile, Garrett Cragin (6-11) in the high jump and Austin Cook (63-11.5) in the weight throw.
Runner-up performances included Nathan Hite in the heptathlon, where his score of 5,448 points moves him to No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list. Will Williams sprinted to a time of 6.78 in the 60m, Audie Wyatt cleared 17-1.5 in the pole vault, and Elijah Morrow clocked 21.18 in the 200m.
For the Aggie women, other runner-up efforts included Amber Ivy (7.34) in the 60m, Miah Nelson (2:10.78, No. 8 A&M) in the 800m, and Kara Erickson (5-7.75) in the high jump.
The maroon and white will resume action on Thursday and Friday at the Tiger Paw Invite in Clemson, South Carolina.