The last track meet of the season saw Latario Collie win a bronze medal and fourth place finishes by Hector Hernandez and Shamier Little at the NCAA Championships in the CrossPlex Facility.
The A&M men’s team finished in 10th place scoring 17 points and on the women’s side they had one scorer in Little with five points. Oregon finished in first place in team scoring with the men accumulating 63 points and the women 53 points. Arkansas was the runner-up in both men and womens and finished at 39 and 50 points, respectively.
Among the men’s top five schools were Tennessee (34), LSU (28), Texas (25), Washington (24) and Florida (21). The women’s top five schools included Georgia (45), Texas (44), Notre Dame (35), Michigan (31) and Tennessee (30).
Head coach Pat Henry said he was proud of the way Collie competed.
“We had some good efforts today and it’s good to see Latario get going again after having a foot hurting him most of the indoor season,” Henry said to 12thman.com “That was a good sign today.”
Henry said he was happy with what he saw from Hernandez and Little as well.
“I was pleased with Hector placing fourth and he had a solid 800, running 1:47 without his cohort in the race,” Henry said to 12thman.com “Shamier took a chance and tried to run with the defending champion in the 400. Anytime you can run 51 seconds indoors as a 400 hurdler, that’s big time.”
Collie secured a bronze medal with a leap of 53-11¼ (16.44) in the triple jump improving on his fifth place finish from last year. With his third place finish, Collie matched the highest finish by an Aggie at the NCAA Indoor meet, joining Zuheir Sharif (2009) and Julian Reid (2011).
His marks in the triple jump were the best of the season. On six attempts, he scored 52-11 ½ (16.14) followed by 53-7 ½ (16.34), 53-8 ½ (16.37), 52-9 ¼ (16.08), foul and 53-11 ¼.
“It’s been really hard since my season started off rough,” Collie said to 12thman.com. “I thought I could have won the event, but my takeoff was too far behind the board. The runway was fine and I was able to produce something when I was really pressured. I knew I had to score points for my team.”
Arkansas’ Clive Pullen won the triple jump with 54-7 ¼ (16.64) and South Florida’s Matthew O’neal finished second (54-5 ½).
Little, the lone scorer for the women’s team, put up her best time of the season with a time of 51.74 seconds winning fourth place in the women’s 400m. The two-time NCAA Outdoor champion in 400m hurdles has now placed for the third consecutive year in the NCAA Indoor 400m.
Defending champion Courtney Okolo of Texas, won the 400m final in 50.69 as she lead the second section. Arkansas’ Taylor Ellis-Watson took second place with a win in the first section at 51.51. Texas sprinter Chrisann Gordon placed second in the section in 51.59 to take third overall.
“It was a loaded field and I’m pleased I wrapped up indoors with a PR,” Little said to 12thman.com “It shows me that my time outdoors will be faster in the hurdles. So it’s all setting me up for what I really need to do. I had to be mentally and physically tough for that race while sticking to my race plan.”
Hernandez ran 1:47:55 in the 800m securing a fourth place finish behind Akron’s Clayton Murphy (1:46.68), Eliud Rutto of Middle Tennessee State (1:46.81) and BYU’s Shaquille Walker (1:47.50).
The A&M 4×400 relay ran in 3:07.09 taking 8th place after finishing fourth in the opening heat. Aggies competing in the relay included junior Fred Kerley, sophomore Robert Grant, Hernandez and freshman Eric Age. LSU won the event in 3:04.28 ahead of Florida, Baylor and Texas.
Junior Lindon Victor took 10th in the heptathlon with 5,510 points. He had 717 points off of 60m hurdles with a 9.13 and added 760 points with a 14-9 pole vault and finished off the event with 718 points from a 2:54.58 in the 1,000m.
Zach Ziemek of Wisconsin, won the multi-event with 6,173 points, Arizona’s Pau Tonnesen finished in second place with 6,027 points and the SEC champion, Georgia’s Garrett Scantling took third with 5,951 points
