Texas A&M track and field racked up eight victories, including five relay titles, two individual titles and one B division event title at the Texas Relays in Austin this past week.
“Any time you win five relays here you have to be pretty happy,” A&M head coach Pat Henry told 12thman.com. “Overall, we did very well this weekend including winning the decathlon with Nathan Hite and the 400m hurdles with Ilolo Izu.”
A&M closed out the weekend by sweeping the 4×400 titles in front of a crowd of 20,957 at Mike A. Myers Stadium. The men’s squad clocked a time of 3:30.30 to win their third consecutive title at the event. On track were Ilolo Izu (46.8), Kyree Johnson (45.7), Robert Grant (46.34) and Devin Dixon (44.45).
The women’s 4×400 team get their first win since 2011, finishing with a time of 3:32.93. On track were Jarra Owens (54.1), Tierra Robinson-Jones (53.4), Jaevin Reed (53.06) and Syaira Richardson (52.25).
The men’s 4×800 squad also placed first, defending their title with a time of 7:23.78. Wayland Baptist had a slight edge over the Aggies after three legs, but Dixon pulled well ahead of the field while running the anchor lap. The team was made up of Wes McPhail (1:53.80), Carlton Orange (1:49.02), Carlos Rodriguez (1:53.58) and Dixon (1:47.38).
The Aggies’ fourth title on the final day of competition came from the women’s 4×200 relay team who won by a wide margin over Houston and Texas Tech, clocking a time of 1:31.88. Running for A&M were Diamond Spaulding, Julia Madubuike, Brenessa Thompson and Danyel White.
A&M’s first win came two days earlier in the men’s heptathlon, where Nathan Hite scored a collegiate-leading 7,774 points.
“This means the world to me,” Hite told 12thman.com. “This is my senior year and to have a decathlon like this is something I’ll never forget.”
Hite was down by five points to Arkansas Gabe Moore entering the final event, the 1,500 meter. Moore entered the meet with the best 1,500 meter time, but when the race concluded, Hite placed second while Moore finished 12th. This result propelled Hite to the top of the heptathlon standings.
“Going into the 1,500 there was a five-point difference with Gabe Moore and I,” Hite told 12thman.com. “That is a little less than a second in the 1,500, so the race plan was to stick on his back until 200m to go. Then I was going to kick and give it everything I had. That’s what I did, and thank God it was enough.”
As for the other events, Hite placed in nine events — second in high jump, 12th in long jump, fifth in shot put, 12th in high jump, first in 400 meter, sixth in 110 meter hurdles, second in discus throw, fourth in pole vault and sixth in javelin.
On the same day, Hannah Campbell won the B division of the 1,500 meter to claim the Aggie’s second title of the meet. Campbell took the lead ahead of Texas’ Claudine Blancaflor with 300 meter to go and pulled away to the finish line, clocking a time of 4:35.85.
The other individual win went to Izu, who defended his 400 meter hurdles title with a time of 50.20 seconds. Izu charged to the finish line after the last hurdle, defeating Houston’s Quivell Jordan by five-hundredths of a second. Izu is the only Aggie to win a hurdle race twice at the Texas Relays.
“It was really awesome to win again,” Izu told 12thman.com. “The most important thing that I really felt today was being out there with my teammates, my best friend DeWitt was out there with me. It was really awesome and I was excited to run. It was really fun.”
Rounding out the Aggie wins was the women’s sprint medley relay. A time of 3:42.20 defeat Texas and LSU, and saw the title go to A&M for the third time since 2014.
The Aggies will be at home on Saturday, April 6 to host the inaugural meet at their new outdoor venue, E.B. Cushing Stadium. The Reveille will be the team’s first home outdoor meet in 15 seasons.
“We’re ready to get home and ready to have some fun at our own place,” Henry told 12thman.com. “We’re looking forward to it.”