Through two days of competition, the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track and field teams had several medal earners as the two teams each placed tenth at the SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Aggies started off with a tie in men’s pole vaulting as senior Zach Davis and freshman Jack Mann III recorded a mark of 17-4.5/5.30-meters to earn bronze medals and 11 points for the team. As a freshman, Mann now holds the No. 11 spot on A&M’s all-time list, while Davis adds to his gold medal from last year’s championship.
A&M earned a couple of points during the men’s distance relay event as junior Eric Casarez placed eighth with a 14:22.17 time, and the rest of the team posted a 9:48.16 time to come in eighth as well.
Junior Connor Schulman set a new personal record in men’s 60-meter hurdles with the second-best time of 7.70 to advance him to Saturday’s finals. Meanwhile, junior Gavin Hoffpauir earned his own spot in Saturday’s mile final as he posted a sixth-place finish with a time of 4:04:93.
Moving on to the women’s events, sophomore Joniar Thomas and junior Ally Andress finished seventh and ninth in the pentathlon event, respectively. Thomas scored 2 more points for the Aggies with a score of 3900 points, while Andress finished with 3839 points and moved up to No. 8 in A&M’s record books.
Sophomore Heather Abadie earned 3 points for A&M with her sixth-place finish in pole vault after clearing 13-5.75/4.11m. The Aggies earned a spot in the women’s 400-meter final as sophomore Jermaisha Arnold (51.92) and senior Tierra Robinson-Jones (52.24) finished in third and fifth place, respectively. Sophomore Bailey Goggans ended the first day of competition by moving on to the 800-meter final after placing second in her heat with a 2:06:70 time.
Day 2 was highlighted by junior Ushan Perera and senior Lamara Distin as they swept the high jump event to claim the SEC title. Perera’s 7-4.25/2.24-meter clearance defeated the defending champion, Roberto Vilches, from Missouri. Meanwhile, Distin, the two-time defending champion, cleared 6-4.75/1.95-meter to win her third-straight SEC title and hold the No. 2 spot in school history. Distin was joined by Andress, who tied for sixth (5-10.75/1.80-meter), and sophomore Bára Sajdoková (5-9.75/1.77-meter) who finished eighth in the event.
In the women’s 400-meter final, Robinson-Jones finished with a personal best time of 51.27 to take home the bronze and become the fifth-fastest runner in A&M’s history. Arnold placed seventh in the event with a 52.05 time to add 2 points for the Aggies. Meanwhile, Schulman added another bronze medal in the men’s 60-meter hurdles as he finished with a 7.73 time.
The men’s final saw Hoffpauir make a fifth-place finish with a 4:05:43 time. Freshmen Landon Helms and Blake Harris finished seventh and ninth in the heptathlon event over the two-day period. Helms recorded three new personal bests as he scored 5,492 points, while Harris set five new bests to score 5,472 points. Sophomore Bryce Foster made his return after an ACL injury during the football season as he placed sixth in shot put after tossing for a distance of 61-7.75/18.79-meters.
The men’s 4×400-meter team finished fifth with a 3:06:06 time by freshmen Eric Hemphill III and DeMarco Escobar and sophomores Cutler Zamzow and Ashton Schwartzman. Meanwhile, the women’s 4×400 team did not finish their run after dropping the baton. The group consisting of senior Jania Martin, sophomore Kennedy Wade, Arnold and Robinson-Jones, were leading before the baton was dropped by Martin to end the competition for the Aggies.
Arkansas’ teams won the meet while both A&M’s men’s and women’s teams placed 10th with 42 and 26.5 points, respectively.