In their second meet of the outdoor season, both the women’s and men’s track and field teams had dominant performances this weekend in San Antonio at the Roadrunner Invitational. The women’s team totaled 178.5 points while the men’s squad tallied 168. The next closest team was Kansas State on each side, scoring 148 points on the women’s side and 100 on the men’s.
“It was really a hard meet to win,” Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said to 12thman.com. “It doesn’t look like it on paper, but there was a lot of competition here and our people did a good job. Leading into a big meet with the Texas Relays next week, we did some good things here that will help us solidify some things for next week.”
Madalaine Stulce began scoring for the women’s squad on day one with a first place finish in the javelin throw. The senior recorded a throw of 52.46m to win the event.
“Not focusing on the competition is what got me through this meet,” Stulce noted to 12thman.com. “I focused on my goals for this meet and I know I have a lot more in the tank that I can go to this year. I’m just building with each meet. I could feel my run better today and I was focusing on every step of the run during my approach. I gained some more consistency today heading into Texas Relays next week. I’m not exactly where I want to be right now, so that gives me more motivation to keep working harder for the rest of the season.”
Tyra Gittens and Triki Tahar each won their respective long jump competitions on Saturday. Gittens jumped 6.18m to win the women’s side, while Tahar leapt 7.80m to finish on top of the men’s competition.
Other top finishers in the field for the women included Celine Markert who finished second in the shot put with a heave of 15.31m, while Shaina Burns jumped 5.42m in the long jump to finish second. Serena Brown also managed a runner-up finish with a throw of 55.76m in discus.
Freshman Gabriel Oladipo claimed top spot in the men’s discus throw with a heave of 54.26m. Along with he and Tahar, four other Texas A&M men finished in the top-three in their events.
Jacob Wooten managed a second place finish in the pole vault with a jump of 5.45m, while Garrett Cragin leapt 2.10m to finish runner-up in the high jump. Josh Brown also managed a second place finish, this time in the discus with a throw of 49.92m, while Austin Cook finished third in the hammer throw with a heave of 59.82m.
On the track, the Aggies finished with several wins and many top three finishes across various events.
The women’s first win came in the 4×100 relay where the women ran a time of 43.49 to finish on top of the field. Running for the Aggies were Amber Ivy, Diamond Spaulding, Brenessa Thompson and Julia Madubuike.
In the same event, the men finished in third with a time of 39.73 behind a squad of Will Williams, Mylik Kerley, Bryce Deadmon and Kyree Johnson.
More points came for the women when Spaulding and Thompson each place first and second in the 200m. Spaulding ran a time of 22.98, while Thompson clocked a 23.04. Aggies Ivy and Madubuike each placed fourth and fifth in the event.
“My effort was pretty good,” Spaulding said to 12thman.com. “I still felt like I could have done more on the curve. I was proud of my group in how we raced in the 200 today. We’re never satisfied and always hungry.”
The Aggie men took all top-three spots in the 2000m steeplechase. Zephyr Seagraves won the event with a time of 6:01.31, while Raymond Gonzalez and Sam Ericson each ran times of 6:03.01 and 6:03.19.
Another strong group showing came for the Aggie men in the 400m hurdles. Junior Ilolo Izu won the event with a time of 50.42, while Infinite Tucker, Jackson Davis and Dewitt Thomas took third through fifth, respectively.
“I haven’t been doing hurdles that much over the past month,” Izu said to 12thman.com. “Being able to come out here and run the hurdles in that time felt really good. I was able to hit my race pattern and do everything I needed to do today. I knew coming into this meet I was going to finish this race with a PR. Coming off the backstretch I started to chill a little bit and noticed this feels a lot faster than normal.”
Both teams performed well in the 110m hurdles, where Tyler Guillory placed second for the men with a time of 14.22, while Chinyere Njoku and Tyra Gittens placed third and fourth for the women with times of 13.76 and 13.77, respectively.
The 3000m was also a strong event for both sides. The Aggie women took second through sixth place, lead by sophomore Lauryn Barrientos who ran a time of 10:04.43. Eli Canal placed third for the men with a time of 9:02.02.
Other top finishers on the track included Virginia Kerley and Margaret Hoffman who finished third in the 100m and 800m, respectively. Also in the 800m, Blake Chiuminetta placed third for the men with a time of 1:53.55.
The men’s and women’s 4×400 relays closed out the action, with both Texas A&M squads placing in second. The men ran a time of 3:04.54, while the women clocked a 3:39.89.
On track for the men were Deadmon, Richard Rose, Colby Zamzow and Johnson. Running for the women were Kadecia Baird, Jazmine Fray, Madubuike and Jarra Owens.
“We had a lot of standout performances today,” Henry said to 12thman.com. “Our new jumper Triki won the long jump with a big jump of 25-7 and Izu had a huge run on his opener in the hurdles. The women’s 200m was outstanding with Spaulding getting under 23 seconds and we had some nice depth behind her. The men’s 4×400 with our second group running 3:04 without any of the four guys that ran at NCAA Indoor is big time.”
The Aggies’ next action will come in Austin where they will compete in the Texas Relays from March 28-31.