Texas A&M’s track and field teams returned to the Golden State on Wednesday, April 12, through Saturday, April 15, to compete in the 63rd Mt. SAC Relays, an annual track and field event that hosts some of the top athletes in the world.
The four-day event is hosted on Mt. San Antonio College’s campus at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, California. The multi-event competition consisted of collegiate and invitational events.
The event was opened by the men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon.
On the men’s side, freshman Thatcher Frankfather took fifth with a score of 7,151. Freshman Landon Helms placed right behind his fellow Aggie, taking sixth with a score of 6,787. Freshman Blake Harris scored 6,495 to take 11th.
On the women’s side, sophomore Joniar Thomas scored 5,557 to take eighth while junior Allyson Andress took 13th with a score of 4,108.
In the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase, senior Julia Abell placed third with a time of 10 minutes, 24.67 seconds.
The maroon and white had four runners compete in the men’s and women’s collegiate section of the 400 meter.
On the men’s side, sophomore Ashton Schwartzman placed third with a time of 46.68, a hundredth of a second behind San Jose State’s Christopher Coats. Freshman DeMarco Escobar placed 17th out of 64 runners with a time of 47.52.
Coincidentally, the women’s team also had runners place third and 17th. Sophomore Kennedy Wade took third place with a time of 52.41, while senior Jania Martin placed 17th with a time of 54.05.
The Aggies took home the top two spots in the women’s invitational 400, as sophomore Jermaisha Arnold placed first with a time of 50.79. Right behind her to take second was senior Tierra Robinson-Jones with a time of 51.01.
On the men’s side, sophomore Auhmad Robinson placed 10th with a time of 45.94.
The Aggies had two top 12 finishers in the women’s 800 meter. Freshman Sanu Jallow ran a time of 2:05.68, the second fastest time, while junior MiKenna Robinson placed 12th with a time of 2:10.29.
The men’s 200 meter featured three Aggies. Junior Ryan Martin ran the eighth-best time, clocking in at 21.20. Sophomore Isaiah Teer ran a 21.56 while sophomore Jordan Chopane ran a 21.60, to place 21st and 24th, respectively.
Freshman Camryn Dickson was the lone Aggie in the women’s 200 invitational, running the eighth-best time of 23.12.
Sophomore Victor Zuniga placed 14th out of 38 in the men’s collegiate 1500 with a time of 3:51.98.
The Aggies had four participants in the invitational 5000 meter.
On the women’s side, sophomore Maddie Livingston placed 14th with a time of 16:28.80. She was followed by senior Grace Plain, who ran the 17th-best time of 16:38.90 and senior Abbey Santoro, who placed 21st with a time of 17:14.23.
Junior Chandon Chhikara was the lone performer for the Aggies on the men’s side. Chhikara clocked 14:01.88, the 11th-best time.
In the collegiate men’s 5000, sophomore Jonathan Chung placed fourth, running in 14:24.55.
Sophomore Heather Abadie was the lone participant for the Aggies in the collegiate women’s pole vault. Abadie took third place, clearing 14 feet, 1.25 inches/4.30 meters, beating her 13-7 ¾ /4.16 mark from last week’s Trojan Invitational.
The men’s pole vaulting team took third and fifth place as senior Zach Davis finished third and freshman Jack Mann III finished fifth, both had a 17-4 ½ /5.30 mark.
The Aggies placed second and fourth in the women’s invitational javelin throw as sophomore Lianna Davidson placed second with a mark of 183-11-56.07 and sophomore Katelyn Fairchild placed fourth with a throw of 176-3-53.73.
The men’s 4×100 team took third place with a time of 39.29 thanks to Martin, Teer, sophomore DeVonte Mount and junior Conner Schulman.
Freshman Jaiya Covington placed fifth in the women’s 100 hurdles invitational section with a time of 13.13.
In the men’s 110 hurdles invitational, junior Connor Schulman placed fifth clocking a 13.54.
Both the men and women had a participant in the 100 dash invitational section. On the women’s side, sophomore Semira Killebrew placed 10th with a time of 11.34. On the men’s side, Martin ran 10.18, the seventh-fastest time.
In the women’s high jump invitational, senior Lamara Distin cleared 6-4-1.93, which was good enough to place second. Distin was only beaten by Vashti Cunningham, a member of Team Nike who had previously placed sixth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a member of Team USA.
To close out the four-day event were impressive showings from the Aggie 4×400 teams in the men’s and women’s invitational relays.
On the women’s side, Arnold, Wade, Jallow and Robinson-Jones lifted the Aggies to a second-place finish with a time of 3:25.79. A&M finished just behind Team USA, but beat out Duke by nearly four seconds.
On the men’s side, Escobar, Robinson, freshman Eric Hemphill III and junior Omajuwa Etiwe also secured a second-place finish with a time of 3:03.30. The Aggies just edged out Arkansas and finished behind Georgia.
Next for the Aggies is a road trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the maroon and white will compete next week at Bernie Moore Track Stadium on Saturday, April 22.
