Mattie Taylor
Texas A&M senior Connor Gregston clears the bar during the Ted Nelson Invitional at the Murray Fasken Indoor Track on Jan. 20, 2024. (Mattie Taylor/The Battalion)
After competing at the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 26-27, the Texas A&M track and field team comes home from Arkansas with personal bests and new program records. Breaking through the four minute mile mark, junior Cooper Cawthra raced to a blistering finish of three minutes and 59.05 seconds. His time broke the former record of 3:59.12 set by Alex Riba in 2018.
“To run 3:59.05 is a huge performance, not too long ago that would get you a statue built, he was great today,” coach Pat Henry said.
Junior Heather Abadie vaulted to the gold in the pole vault with her height of 4.38 meters, breaking the A&M record of 4.33m set by Emily Gunderson in 2017.
“Heather had the best day she’s ever had, she was clean and looked great throughout,” Henry said. “Breaking a program record is very hard to do, and clearing 4.38m/14-4.5 is extremely impressive.”
Sophomore Landon Helms shined on the field, obtaining three personal bests. He began his trio of records with a 6.98m leap on the long jump and followed that up with a heave of 13.16m on the shot put. Helms completed the hat trick with the high jump, vaulting to a height of 1.81m.
Freshman Jack Johnston ran the distance, managing 8:19.42 for a personal best on the 3000-meter. Freshman Carter Gordy also obtained a personal best with a time of 4:11.77 on the mile.
A pair of sophomores performed well with sophomore Camryn Dickson sprinting to a personal best of 23.29 on the 200-meter dash and sophomore Jade Johnson leaping to a personal best of 5.68 meters on the long jump.
Junior Auhmad Robinson proved why he is the master of the middle distance by finishing second in the 400-meter with a season-best 46.15 and junior Bailey Goggans ran her fastest time in the 800-meter with a 2:03.83.
Aggies took the top two spots in the 60-meter hurdles, with the battle coming down to the very last second. Senior Connor Schulman managed to win gold with a time of 6.672, which was just .001 seconds ahead of sophomore Ja’Qualon Scott’s time of 6.673, both personal bests.
Two personal bests closed off the meet with sophomore Kennady Fontenot’s 9:41.99 in the 3000-meter and freshman Ryley Klefstad’s 5.25 meters on the pole vault.
The Maroon and White return to the track at the Charlie Thomas Invitational on Feb. 2-3 at the Fasken Indoor Track and Field facility.