Aggies capture pair of team titles as host of Texas A&M Invitational

Aggies capture pair of team titles as host of Texas A&M Invitational
Demetrius Pinder and Porscha Lucas each earn NCAA automatic qualifiers on Saturday

Jan. 17, 2010
College Station - A final event 4 x 400 relay victory, with Jessica Beard anchoring in 51.8 seconds, enabled the No. 1 Texas A&M women to turn a one-point edge over No. 21 Oklahoma into an 11-point victory in front of 2,606 fans at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on Saturday.

Additional highlights on the day included a pair of NCAA automatic qualifying marks from Demetrius Pinder, with a world leading 46.01 in the men's 400, and Porscha Lucas, with a world leading 23.06 in the 200.

NCAA provisional marks were attained by seven Aggies - Vashti Thomas (8.24 - 60 hurdles), Gerald Phiri (6.63 - 60 meters), Natasha Ruddock (8.30 - 60 hurdles), Gabby Mayo (7.38 - 60 meters), Dominique Duncan (7.45 - 60 meters), Tabarie Henry (21.13 - 200 meters) and Beard (23.45 - 200 meters).

Pinder blistered his two circuits around the track in becoming the second fastest performer with the second fastest performance indoors in Texas A&M history. His 46.01 clocking only trails the school record of 45.94 set by Howard Davis in 1989 at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Lucas, meanwhile, cruised to the top mark in the 200 in recording the 10th fastest performance ever on the A&M indoor all-time list where she holds the school record of 22.83. Beard finished second in 23.45 with Dominique Duncan fourth in 24.30.

Beard began her anchor leg in third place behind Louisiana Tech and Baylor and one position ahead of Oklahoma in the four-team section. It barely took half a lap of the banked 200-meter track for Beard to close the gap on the leaders and before the first of her two laps was complete she had the Aggies in the lead.

A strong finish by Beard, following relay carries from Donique' Flemings, Sandy Wooten and Tiffany Singleton, recorded a 3:41.90 win for Texas A&M while Oklahoma finished 10th overall in the combined field and didn't add any more points to its tally.

The preseason No. 1 Aggie women totaled 126 points with the Sooners runner-up with 115. Meanwhile Baylor claimed third with 77 points, Texas finished fourth with 57 and Stephen F. Austin turned in 40 for fifth place.

With 137 points the No. 8 Texas A&M men achieved the top team honors as Baylor was runner-up with 96.3 points. Oklahoma finished third with 85 as TCU had 59 for fourth and Sam Houston State finished fifth with 41 points.

A close finish in the men's 4 x 400 had the top three teams only separated by a half of a second. Baylor won the race in 3:08.50 while TCU was runner-up at 3:08.68. Texas A&M, running with the foursome of Pinder, Kyle Dykhuzien, Ashton Young and Brian Miller, placed third in 3:08.98.

Phiri, who also enjoyed an early season world-leading status, posted the second fastest performance in A&M history as his 6.63 victory in the 60 only trailed his own school record of 6.59. He pulled away from a field that included a 6.69 from Keyth Talley of North Texas as well as a 6.72 from Baylor's Trey Harts.

Vashti Thomas earned her victory in the 60 hurdles as she battled teammate Natasha Ruddock to the finish line. Thomas, who ran 8.28 in the prelims, posted her 8.24 in the final to become the third fastest in the event at A&M with the fifth-fastest performance. Ruddock posted an 8.30 in the prelims, the sixth fastest at A&M, and equaled that time again in the final for second place.

In the women's 60 meters Mayo finished second to Baylor's Tiffany Townsend (7.36) with a 7.42 as Duncan placed third in 7.45.

Finishing as the top collegian in their respective events were Sandy Wooten (400 - 55.55) and Brett Bennett (pole vault - 15-6.25).

Cole Knuth used a runner-up finish in the weight throw to move into second on the A&M all-time list with his mark of 58-3.25 Deidre Tarver produced the third best mark in the weight throw at Texas A&M with her toss of 60-1.75.

C.J. Brown ran well in the mile to place second among collegians with a 4:13.05. A set of 1:53s in the 800 had A&M scoring 13 points as the four-man group was led by a 1:53.31 from Joe Snelick.

Courtesy Texas A&M