Aggie women win Big 12 indoor track title

Aggie women win Big 12 indoor track title
Courtesy Texas A&M
Published Sunday, February 28, 2010 12:06 AM

AMES, Iowa -- Texas A&M's Gabby Mayo was the high-point performer at the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships for a second straight year to lead the Aggie women to their fourth straight title Saturday.

Mayo defended her titles in the 60-meter hurdles (8.05 seconds, a school record) and 60-meter dash (7.30) in helping the Aggies to 130 1/2 points. Texas Tech was second with 115.

"I'm happy to have come out on top," said Mayo, who also was fourth in the 200-meter dash. "I'm very pleased to have repeated that double and to be high-point scorer again. Hopefully, I'll get even faster by nationals. I'm glad to have this type of competition on my team, it makes us all faster."

On the men's side, Oklahoma won the last event to win its first indoor crown with 114 points, four more than Nebraska. A&M was third (99 1/2).

A&M's Jessica Beard won her third consecutive 400-meter dash (51.15), which was a Big 12 meet record. Porscha Lucas won her third straight 200 meters (23.12). The Aggies ended by winning the 4x400 meter relay, setting a meet in 3:33.20.

"Since I've been here we've started a trend winning the conference title and I hope it continues," Lucas said. "I knew we had the ability to be a great team when I was in my freshman year, but I didn't expect to have this many titles under our belt by the time I was a senior."

The Aggie men won three events -- Tabarie Henry in the 400 meters (46.28), Curtis Mitchell in the 200 meters (20.73) and the 4x400 relay team (3:04.99).

"Across the board if you look at everything the team did, they really got after it today," A&M head coach Pat Henry said. "It's a tough meet for us to win. You can have a really good team and come in here and be third or fourth, but still have a good track team at the next meet. I'm extremely pleased with the overall effort of our team."

Texas Tech led the women's meet by eight points over A&M after the 800. With three event finals remaining the Aggies reclaimed the lead and built a 19-point cushion by dominating the 200.

Lucas led an A&M 1-2-3-4 sweep for 29 points. Her time broke the Lied Center record of 23.16 set in 1998 by Nanceen Perry of Texas. Beard finished second in a NCAA automatic time of 23.18 while Jeneba Tarmoh (Mt. Pleasant HS, San Jose) (23.25) placed third and Mayo (23.43) was fourth.