After a winless first day of competition, the A&M men’s and women’s track and field teams finally picked up some speed to compete in the 89th Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. Texas A&M, Texas and several SEC teams met to compete in this year’s edition of the meet in Austin.
Seniors Devin Jenkins and Hector Hernandez, junior Deon Hickey and Sophomore Elijah Morrow joined forces to take first in the 1600 sprint medley relay to claim the Aggies’ first gold medal of the Texas Relays. The team finished the event a quarter of a second ahead of Texas Tech’s team to earn a 3:17.62 time and the top spot in the event.
Although the Aggies weren’t able to top the Myers Stadium record for the 3200 meter relay 一 previously set by A&M in 2012 一 this year’s group of J Ellison, Hector Hernandez, Efrain Hernandez and D Brazier were able run away with gold. They fell three seconds short of the record with a time of 7:18.95 in the event.
Senior Maggie Malone earned first place based on her very first attempt in the javelin throw. After covering a distance of 52.99 meters on the attempt, she decided to pass on each of her final five attempts. Later in the afternoon, sophomore Ioannis Kyriazis was able to compete in the men’s javelin throw and earned first place in his first attempt. Kyriazis closed out the collegiate field portion of competition Friday with an 81.87 meter throw to dominate second and third place by over 10 meters.
Freshman Celine Markert was able to garner a gold medal victory in the discuss throw event. On her second attempt, she was able to measure a distance of 48.52 meters to take the win. Senior Shelbi Vaughan conquered the discus throw on her fifth attempt after three consecutive fouls. Vaughan was able to get a mark over three meters ahead of second place where she made a throw of 58.76 meters.
Juniors Ryan Teel, Gaines Kinsey, Alex Riba and sophomore Robert Grant continued to prove teamwork can earn more gold for A&M. The team worked together to beat out several Texas teams and second place Connecticut to finish the event at 9:51.79 to take first place in the distance medley relay.
Devin Jenkins, Robert Grant and Elijah Morrow joined in another team accomplishment with junior Fred Kerley in the 800 meter relay. The group was able to conjoin for a 1:21.11 finish to beat out LSU by .03 seconds and earn first place.
Although the women’s team only walked away with a few gold medals, the Aggies were able to earn silver medals in both 400 meter relays, the 1600 sprint medley relay, and the distance medley relay. To add to the men’s team’s success, sophomore Audie Wyatt managed to reach up to 5.65 meters in the pole vault and finished as the runner-up in the event.
All in all, the Aggies were able to sprint away with another successful day in the history books. After back-to-back in-state competitions, the Aggies will return to Tempe, Arizona to compete in the Sun Angel Classic. Competition starts next Friday and will conclude the following evening.
