Packed stands and the full force of the Aggie hometown roar permeated the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships when Texas A&M men’s track and field won its first indoor conference championship at the R.A. Murray Fasken ’38 Indoor Track & Field facility on Saturday, March 1.
The men and women entered the Feb. 27 to March 1 conference championship ranked No. 4 and No. 12, respectively, in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll and exited with 13 medals across both teams. The men brought home five gold, three silver and one bronze medal, while the women earned one gold, two silver and one bronze to finish in fifth place overall.
Heading into the competition’s final event, the men’s 4x400m relay, only 3.5 points separated A&M and Arkansas, with both having a shot at gold. Backed by a rip-roaring 12th Man, senior anchor Kimar Farquharson secured the gold to seal the championship win along with teammates redshirt senior Auhmad Robinson, senior Cutler Zamzow and junior Hossam Eddine Hatib in 3:03.09 seconds.
“I really didn’t notice how big [the crowd] was until I went around,” Robinson said.
The golden ways weekend kicked off on Thursday night with the men’s distance medley relay of freshman Luca Santorum, senior Cooper Cawthra, graduate student Caden Norris and Zamzow, setting a new meet record of 9:23.92.
The first day concluded with two silver medals and one bronze for the men and women. Freshman Sofia Yakushina made her SEC Championships debut one to remember, with a silver-medal finish and a new A&M All-Time No. 2 mark in the women’s pentathlon at 4,556 points, breaking her previous personal best by 322 points. Field medals came from junior Jack Mann III, who took his fifth straight conference medal in the pole vault, leaping 5.35 meters to equal his personal best for silver. Junior Khybah Dawson had a personal best 7.89-meter long jump for bronze and the final medal of the day for the Aggies.
On Friday, junior Blake Harris kept the golden streak going with a new personal best of 5,800 points and the top-place finish in the men’s heptathlon, a special moment after returning from injury and missing last year’s championships.
“All glory to God, seriously,” Harris said. “Last year, I had a lower back surgery and missed the indoor season and all the off-season. I came back and had a new perspective after that honestly. Physical health and this talent is just a gift that the Lord has given me and blessed me with, and I just came out here and wanted to do it for Him.”
The final day of competition added eight medals for A&M, with the men taking three gold and two silver and the women earning one gold, one silver and one bronze. Senior Cooper Cawthra opened the count on Saturday, taking silver in the men’s 1-mile at 4:03.23.
Gold shone again for Robinson in the men’s 400m, before he would be part of the winning 4x400m relay final. The senior from Spring ran 45.06 for the top of the podium.
Senior Sam Whitmarsh, a Bowerman Watch List athlete, followed Robinson and took gold in the 800m with a new season-best time of 1:47.69.
“Before every race, I’m always focusing on a couple things, and one of them is God and the promises he’s promised to me,” Whitmarsh said. “And that reminds me to be positive and that today is a gift and centers around gratitude. Whenever I’m approaching the race with gratitude in my heart and excited to step on the track to go exercise this gift that I have been given, it takes away a lot of the pressure and helps me shift my perspective away from fear towards gratitude and excitement.”
Back on the field, a pair of hurdlers added two medals with junior Ja’Qualon Scott taking silver in the 60m hurdles in 7.51 for a new school record. Junior Jaiya Covington earned bronze for the women in the 60m hurdles, crossing the line in 8.05.
Junior Camryn Dickson raced to a silver medal finish in the women’s 200m at 22.84, a new personal best.
“I kinda just kept my head down and went to work,” Dickson said. “I had a late start to my season training, so I just wanted to be the best I could be for my team here and it came out to be awesome for myself as well.”
The Kenyan National women’s triple jump record holder and A&M junior Winny Bii claimed the final gold medal for the women with a jump of 13.79 meters after a grueling and nearly three-hour event that had 23 starting competitors.
The A&M men’s SEC Indoor Championship is the first in program history and garnered the team 107.5 points. The women claimed 47.33 points to finish fifth overall.
The Aggies are on the road to the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach on March 14-15 for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
