The Desert Heat failed to cool off the hot run in the outdoor season from several members of the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track and field teams.
While most of the athletes on the track and field teams were competing at the Penn Relays, a small section of the team participated in the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, April 29. The meet was hosted on the campus of the University of Arizona at Drachman Stadium.
With the NCAA Championships coming soon, the maroon and white used this meet to their advantage to get more athletes to compete. Many young athletes showed their to the future to the program while other staples on the roster shined.
Several Aggies were able to place first in their respective competitions in the meet.
On the women’s side, sophomore pole vaulter Heather Abadie highlighted the competition for the Aggies by picking up her fifth win in the outdoor pole vault this season. Abadie cleared the height at 13-11.75/4.25m to pick up the victory while marking the fifth-best performance in school history.
Also in the pole vault, freshman Ava Riche came in eighth for the maroon and white with a jump over a height of 12-9.50/3.90m.
The women’s side was not the only one able to pick up a victory in the pole vault as freshman Jack Mann III marked a top ten jump in school history to claim first place in the men’s competition. Mann III jumped at a height of 17-6.5/5.35m to blow out the rest of the field.
A&M also fared well in the women’s javelin competition as sophomore Kaitlyn Fairchild finished in first while fellow sophomore Lianna Davidson came in third. After leading the competition from her first throw, Fairchild’s second throw of 183-7/55.97m secured her the victory and set her personal best by improving her top six school record after setting it earlier in the season at the Florida Relays.
The furthest throw for Davidson was at 173-1/52.76m, enough for the third place finish.
While the men’s team used its regular 4×400-meter team to compete in the Penn Relays, the Aggies put together another group to race in Tucson. The team used junior sprinter Sam Presnal, sophomore sprinter Christian Rosales, freshman sprinter/jumper Blake Harris and sophomore sprinter Cutler Zamzow to compete. They placed second in their heat, ultimately leading to a seventh place finish in the competition.
Despite not picking up any more victories, the Aggies still had several young prospects post encouraging times.
Junior mid-distance runner Mikenna Robinson finished eighth in the women’s 800, while posting her second-best personal time by running in 2 minutes, 9.23 seconds. Her personal best sits at a 2:08.24 that was set at the Victor Lopez Relays earlier in the year.
Another second-best personal record was set by Harris, jumping a 23-5.5/7.15m in the men’s long jump. Harris’ jump was good for ninth place at the meet.
After returning from injury last week in the LSU Alumni Gold Meet, junior G’Auna Edwards finished fourth in the women’s long jump with a leap of 20-6.5/6.26m. Sophomore Jonair Thomas also competed in the women’s long jump, placing just behind Edwards in fifth with a second-best personal record jump of 20-3.5/6.18m.
The end of the meet marked the end of the regular season for each of A&M’s track and field teams.
With the construction of the new indoor track and field stadium, the Aggies have still been unable to compete at home, making next weekend important for the athletes to rest from the travel of every weekend as they take a bye week.
Coming out of the bye week is when things will be of the utmost importance for the men’s and women’s track and field teams as they will be competing at the SEC Championships May 11-13 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.