The nationally ranked Aggies will conclude this year’s indoor track and field season at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama this Friday and Saturday. Coverage for the national meet will be available through ESPN3 beginning at 6:25 p.m. Friday and will end at 4:55 p.m. Saturday.
The No. 4 Aggie men’s team enter with 10 entries while the No. 17 women’s team has five entries. The men will have a strong potential to score individually and place as a team while the women are less likely to do so with five entries. Entering the national meet, the top five men’s teams include Oregon, Arkansas, Florida, Texas A&M and LSU. The women’s top five teams are Florida, Oregon, Georgia, Arkansas and Texas.
Donovan Brazier is a favorite to win the men’s 800m after posting a U.S. junior record of 1:45.93 in his first race as an Aggie. His teammate, Hector Hernandez, will accompany Brazier with a seed time of 1:46.32.
The SEC Champion in the pole vault, Audie Wyatt, will have a chance to better his school record of 18 feet, 1 inch and possibly win the individual title this weekend. Aggies Chase Wolfle and Jacob Wooten will be complete the trio of pole vaulters for the maroon and white this weekend.
Shamier Little holds the third best time in the 400m race this year, running a 52.15 and looks to improve upon her previous third and fourth place finishes at the last two national meets. Challenging Little will include defending champion Courtney Okolo of Texas and Arkansas’s Taylor Ellis-Watson.
The current Texas A&M record holder for the women’s pentathlon is Annie Kunz tallying a score of 4,363. While Kunz ranks sixth going into the meet, Georgia’s Kendell Williams is the two-time defending NCAA champion and leads all athletes with 4,558 points.
Lindon Victor has another shot at breaking his own school for the heptathlon this weekend as his score of 5,776 points puts him in 10th. Georgia’s Garrett Scantling is the top athlete in the heptathlon with 6,020 points
Returning NCAA finalist Latario Collie has posted the eighth best triple jump this year and looks to improve from his fifth place performance at last year’s national meet. USC’s Eric Sloan leads the competitors and is the only one who has broken 55 feet this indoor season.
Devin Jenkins will race against similar SEC competitors in the men’s 200m. LIU Brooklyn’s Brendon Rodney leads all sprinters but Jenkins has posted a fifth seed time of 20.58.
Coming into the meet ranked 10th in the long jump is A&M’s Will Williams, who is coming off a third-place finish at the the SEC Indoor Championships. Arkansas’ Jarrion Lawson and NC State’s Jonathan Addison have both jumped 26-9 ¾ to lead the competition.
The Texas A&M men’s 4×400 relay team are ranked 11th entering the NCAA Indoor Championships as Florida enters as the top-seeded relay team, running 3:04.02 two weeks ago to claim the SEC title.
The 60m race will feature Florida’s Shayla Sanders for the women and LSU’s Mikiah Brisco for the men. Texas A&M’s Jennifer Madu enters the weekend with a time of 7.26, which ties the ninth seed.
The sprint team will have Diamond Spaulding and Aaliyah Brown competing in the women’s 200m, who rank ninth and 13th coming into the meet. Tennessee’s Felicia Brown leads the field in the women’s 200, running a world-leading time of 22.45, but defending NCAA champion Kyra Jefferson of Florida follows with a 22.72.
