The Texas A&M women’s 4×100 relay won their seventh consecutive Penn Relay title on Friday with a time of 43.76. The Aggies were able to edge out in state rival Texas (44.36) to extend what is the longest current winning streak in any of the women’s relays at the historic event, now in its 121st year.

The quartet of Jennifer Madu, Ashton Purvis, Kamaria Brown and Aaliyah Brown overcame a lackluster prelim time, cool temperatures that dipped into the 40s and a tough lane assignment on their way to capturing the program’s seventh straight trophy wheel.

“I wanted to win this race since it’s my last Penn Relays as a collegian,” said senior Kamaria Brown. “After our performance in the prelims and getting lane three for the final it pushed us to do better. We got the win and I’m very happy. I’ll never forget this moment.”

Aggie head coach Pat Henry talked about the key in winning the relay.

“I think that’s probably the biggest thing about this win, is running inside the curb here in lane three,” coach Henry said. “If you run in lane three and win this one with a 43-plus then that’s a great run for this group of ladies. It was a great competition and the ladies were fired up and ready to compete today.”

The Aggie women followed up their historic Friday performance by winning the 4×400 relay and setting a new collegiate leading mark in the 4×200 on the final day of competition. In the 4×400, sophomore Shamier Little ran an anchoring split of 51.6 to hold off conference rival LSU and add to the victory total.

In the 4×200, the women improved their season best time to 1:31.17, but fell short to Jamaica’s UTech. The performance put together by Purvis, Little, A. Brown and K. Brown is the ninth best time in school history.

On the men’s side, senior distance runner Isaac Spencer won gold in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Spencer, who had placed second in the event for the past two years, was able to finally take the top spot with a time of 8:59.94.

“Coming into this race I wasn’t worried about time, I just wanted to win,” said Spencer. “When I made the surge I knew instantly I changed the pace a lot. Nobody was expecting me to take off with 800 meters left. I’m very thankful to finally get a gold watch.”

The No.1 Texas A&M men also finished second in both the 4×400 and 4×100 sprint relays. In both races, the Aggies shook up their traditional lineups in order to compensate for injuries and allow other members of the team to gain big meet experience.

“We went out there and tried something new with the line-up, putting people on different legs to test them out and see what they will do,” said senior Deon Lendore. “We learned a lot about each other and what we are capable of doing. So that will give coach more options when it comes to other track meets. We didn’t win today, but we’re still satisfied with the run.”
This weekend, the Aggies stay in state for the TCU Horned Frog Invitational. The meet will take place this Saturday in Fort Worth. It will be Texas A&M’s final competition before the SEC Championships.