Texas A&M track and field hosted the Aggie Twilight Invitational on Saturday evening. As the last meet before hosting the SEC and NCAA Championships, several athletes use this weekend as a tune-up, while it gives others the chance to prove that they should be on the postseason squad.
“With this kind of meet, you go into it not knowing what you’ll get out of it,” Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said to 12thman.com. “This team lined up and we got a lot of things done. We accomplished what we wanted to do.
“We have three or four holes that we felt like we needed to watch this weekend to see who was going to fill those next few spots on the team. That’s the value of this meet today.”
School record holder Austin Cook improved his own meet record, winning the weight throw with a heave of 67-3. Garrett Cragin won the men’s high jump, clearing seven feet for the first time indoors with a leap of 7-0.  
“It’s a mark I’ve been trying to get indoors for three years now,” Cragin noted to 12thman.com. “To finally get it was good, especially at a home meet with conference coming up next weekend. To get the seven-foot barrier out of the way was nice.” 
Other men’s winners in the field events included Audie Wyatt who finished on top in pole vault with a height of 17-7, improving his own meet record.
On the women’s side of the competition, Celine Markert won shot put with a season best distance of 50-4, while Alison Ondrusek won the weight throw with a toss of 65-2. 
“It was nice to be consistent where I’ve been this indoor season, which has been a couple of feet farther than past seasons,” Ondrusek said to 12thman.com. “Now I’m ready to go for next week. I’ll have another week of practice, then I’ll be ready for some good competition in the SEC Championships.” 
Tyra Gittens set a meet record in the women’s high jump with a leap of 5-7, while Augusta Thomason won the pole vault at 13-5 and Ciynamon Stevenson won the long jump with a distance of 18-7.
Meet records fell in both sides of the 60m hurdles. Tayrn Milton won the women’s side of the competition with a time of 8.45, while Tyler Guillory broke the meet record in the prelims with an 8.02. Guillory ran faster in the finals, but lost the title to Javier Lopez of Texas A&M-Kingsville who ran a 7.95. 
Valerie Bradley won the women’s mile ahead of eight Aggies with a time of 4:56.17, while Brandt Preston finished ahead of six Aggies to win the men’s mile with a time of 4:13.50.
Hannah Campbell clocked a time of 2:13.46 to win the 800m ahead of teammates Margaret Hoffman (2:13.67) and Jianni McDole (2:13.70). In the women’s 200m, Diamond Spaulding took the title with a time of 23.46.
Kyree Johnson won a tight 400m dash, clocking a time of 47.13 over teammate Bryce Deadmon (47.29).
In the 3,000m races, Karis Jochen won the women’s side of the event, clocking a 9:56.32, while Cameron Villareal took the men’s title with a time of 8:39.74.
While competition was going on in College Station, Texas A&M had a pair of distance medley relay teams competing in the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame.
The women’s squad finished in seventh overall and improved the school record with a time of 11:03.10. Running for the Aggies was Jazmine Fray (3:25.10), Glorilisha Carter (51.9), Brittany Parker (2:07.90) and Sammy Watson (4:38).
The men clocked the second fastest time in school history with a 9:32.99, finishing in ninth overall. On the track for Texas A&M was Taylor Clayton (2:58.20), Robert Grant (45.10), Devin Dixon (1:49.20) and Alex Riba (4:00.2). 
Texas A&M will now look ahead to next weekend’s SEC Championships, as they host the event in College Station at Gilliam Indoor Stadium.