Texas A&M track and field will take 11 Aggies to the NCAA Indoor Championships, with nine individuals and two teams competing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 13 and 14.
The No. 3 women’s team earned eight individual spots and a relay team spot, with seven different Aggies competing.
Junior Tyra Gittens led the Aggies, qualifying for three events: the high jump, long jump and pentathlon. She currently leads the NCAA with her pentathlon score of 4,391 points from the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and 29.
Junior jumper Deborah Acquah followed behind Gittens with two events, the long jump and triple jump. She is second best in the nation with season-best distances of 6.58m/21-7.25 in the long jump and 13.77m/45-2.25 in the triple jump.
Joining Acquah in the triple jump is senior jumper Ciynamon Stevenson, who holds the fourth best distance in the NCAA at 13.49m/44-3.25.
Both the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay teams qualified for the NCAAs.
The quartet of sophomore sprinter Tierra Robinson-Jones, freshman middle distance runner Charokee Young, senior sprinter Jaevin Reed and junior sprinter Syaira Richardson qualified for the women, with Richardson and Young also competing in the 400-meter and 800-meter events respectively.
For the men, graduate student sprinter Bryce Deadmon, redshirt freshman sprinter Jamal Walton, senior middle distance runner Carlton Orange and senior middle distance runner Devin Dixon qualified for the 4×400-meter with a world-leading time of 3:02.77, as well as in individual events.
Deadmon and Walton will compete in the 400-meter race, as the pair holds the first (45.51) and fourth (45.62) best times in the nation, respectively. Orange and Dixon qualified for the 800-meter event.
“We are taking a very talented group to the NCAA Championships,” A&M coach Pat Henry told 12thman.com. “This meet is full of the best of the best, to be productive at this meet you will have to beat other great athletes. We have some of the best, now we just need to perform.”
The NCAA Indoor Championships will be broadcast on ESPN3 starting at 6:15 p.m. on March 13.