Texas A&M wins fourth Big 12 Indoor title

Texas A&M wins fourth Big 12 Indoor title
Aggie men place third for second consecutive year
Feb. 27, 2010


Ames, Iowa - A fourth consecutive Big 12 Indoor championship was claimed by the No. 2 Texas A&M women on Saturday when a surplus of sprinting and hurdling points rolled into a 117-point second day effort at the Lied Recreation-Athletic Facility on the Iowa State campus.

"Since I've been here we've started a trend winning the conference title and I hope it continues," Porscha Lucas stated. "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."

Including the outdoor conference meet, the Aggie women have now won seven consecutive titles since earning their first ever league title in this same building during the 2007 indoor season.

The No. 1 Aggie men placed third in team scoring for the second consecutive year, scoring 99.5 points this year compared to the 84 they attained last season. Oklahoma won the men's title with 114 points ahead of Nebraska's 110.

In addition Texas A&M earned a couple of points in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown with Texas, who placed sixth (71 points) in the men's competition and seventh (58 points) in the women's field.

"Across the board if you look at everything the team did, they really got after it today," Aggie 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."

Gabby Mayo scored 25 points in the meet for the Aggies and claimed high point honors for the second consecutive year. She won the 60 hurdles in a school record 8.05 seconds and 20 minutes later edged out a win in the 60 meters with a 7.30 clocking. A fourth-place effort in the 200 added five more points to her tally.

"I'm happy to have come out on top," Mayo said. "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."

Porscha Lucas and Jessica Beard each won their respective event for the third consecutive year. Then the women's 4 x 400 relay finished off the meet by winning for a fourth consecutive year.

"We did a lot of things today that don't happen very often," Henry noted. "Jessica is an amazing human being right now. Gabby is a tremendous talent and anybody who can double and then come back and contribute in another event is a huge performance."

For the men victories in the 200 by Curtis Mitchell and 400 by Tabarie Henry was topped off by a 4 x 400 relay win, the first ever for A&M at a Big 12 indoor meet.

For the weekend the Aggies totaled six individual victories and two relay wins. Six runner-up efforts followed along with five third-place finishes.

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

Lucas led an A&M 1-2-3-4 sweep for 29 points in the 200, winning in a time of 23.12 seconds. The 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.

Tech finished with 115 points while Nebraska placed third with 96 and Oklahoma totaled 65 for fourth.

"I'm excited that I was able to win the 200 again," Lucas said. "We had a plan with Jessica in the 200 and it worked. I told her she could run well in the 200. After the prelims I knew we had the capability to sweep the final."

Beard put on quite the show in the 400 with a winning time of 51.15, the fastest time ever by an American on an oversized track and seventh best in the world. It bettered the conference meet record of 52.23 set in 2004 by Raasin McIntosh of Texas. It also bettered the Lied Center record of 52.11 set by Shauna Smith of Wyoming.

"I really feel blessed to have that type of performance," Beard noted. "I knew I was capable of doing something great, but I didn't know the plan God had for me. I found out today.

"When I saw the time for my 200 I thought, `wow, I hit the auto mark in the 200.' I had a talk with Porscha before the race and told her I'm going to get out fast if I'm in the same section as you. She said we could go 1-4. I'm glad our strategy worked and we came out on top."

The collegiate leader heading into the meet, Beard also broke her school record of 51.77 seconds she established as the NCAA runner-up last March. Beard also set the fastest time in the world this season on any sized track. During the Russian Championships held this weekend a world best time of 51.22 was set by Tatyana Firova.

In repeating her double victory from last season, Mayo defeated teammate Natasha Ruddock (8.11) in the 60 hurdles in a school record of 8.05 seconds and then 20 minutes later claimed the 60 meters in 7.30 over Oklahoma's Scottesha Miller, who also clocked 7.30. The difference between the two sprinters in the 60 - 7.295 to 7.297.

The Aggie women totaled 24 points in the hurdles and 19 more in the 60 meters. Behind Mayo and Ruddock in the 60 hurdles were Vashti Thomas (8.41) finishing fifth and Donique' Flemings (8.53) in seventh. Tarmoh (7.33) placed third in the 60 while Lucas (7.43) finished sixth.

For the women's relay victory the foursome of Tarmoh, Flemings, Andrea Sutherland and Beard won with a 3:33.20 clocking to break the Big 12 meet record of 3:34.29 established by Baylor in 2000.

The fourth consecutive victory in the women's 4 x 400 by Texas A&M matched a four-year cycle by Texas from 2002-2005.

"In the relay we almost hit the NCAA auto mark of 3:33, so we're not far from it," Beard said. "I'm pretty sure that will get us a good ranking for the NCAA Championships."

In the men's relay the Aggie foursome of Demetrius Pinder, Tran Howell, Bryan Miller and Henry won in 3:04.99 to end a 12-year winning streak by Baylor, who placed second in 3:05.57.

"In the relay, like always, we fight hard to the end," T. Henry said. "That's what it takes to be champions. It was great to win this. Those Baylor guys always want to win the relay. To stab those guys in the heart, it feels good."

Oklahoma, who led Nebraska by one point (108 to 107) heading into the relay, placed third in the 4 x 400 (3:08.01) to earn the deciding points for the men's team title. The Sooners totaled 114 points while Nebraska was second with 110.

Tabarie Henry paced a 1-2-4 effort by the Aggie men in the 400, winning A&M's first title in the event with a 46.28 while teammate Pinder placed second in 46.49. Miller finished fourth in 46.81.

"Today I tried some new things that the coaches wanted me to do in the 400," T. Henry said. "I tried it out and the outcome was ok. It's a learning process from here on out."

Curtis Mitchell won the 200 in 20.73, becoming the third A&M champ in the event at a Big 12 indoor meet, as he bettered two-time defending champion Trey Harts of Baylor (21.12) who placed fourth.

Gerald Phiri (21.05) finished third behind OU's Rakieem Salaam (20.80) while Howell (21.56) placed sixth. In the 60 Phiri (6.70) placed second and had a close finish with Salaam, who was awarded the win with a 6.69 clocking.

Sandy Wooten set a school record in the 600 yards attempting to defend her Big 12 title in the event. Wooten finished third in 1:20.88 while teammate Sutherland placed fourth in a career best of 1:21.37.

The men's 600 yards resulted in a 2-3 finish for Joey Roberts (1:09.52) and Michael Preble (1:09.93). Roberts set the third-fastest time ever at A&M.

Ashika Charan (Hometown:West Covina, California; High School:Claremont
produced her best triple jump of the season, reaching a distance of 42-9 (13.03), for second place. Thomas (41-9.75) placed eighth while Tiffany Peters (40-9.75) just missed scoring in ninth place.

The men's triple jump also had a runner-up finish for Zuheir Sharif (Franklin HS, Elk Grove), who led the event during the finals. Sharif, a two-time Big 12 champion, established a mark of 53-9 in the fifth round, but was passed by a 54-0.5 from Texas Tech's Bryce Lamb in the sixth stanza.

Tyron Stewart (52-3.5) placed fourth for A&M in the triple jump while Julian Reid (50-1.25) finished 10th.

Another key fourth-place finish was turned in by Daphne Fitzpatrick as she cleared a personal best of 5-9.25, eighth best on the Aggie all-time list.

Kevin Burnett ran 8:12.83 to place seventh in the 3,000.


TEAM SCORES

Women: 1. Texas A&M 130.5; 2. Texas Tech 115; 3. Nebraska 96; 4. Oklahoma 65; 5. Kansas 63.5; 6. Iowa State 59; 7. Texas 58; 8. Kansas State 54; 9. Baylor 40; 10. Missouri 35; 11. Oklahoma State 13; 12. Colorado 11.

Men: 1. Oklahoma 114; 2. Nebraska 110; 3. Texas A&M 99.5; 4. Baylor 80; 5. Texas Tech 74.5; 6. Texas 71; 7. Iowa State 50; 8. Kansas State 44.5; 9. Missouri 39; 10. Kansas 31.5; 11. Oklahoma State 24; 12. Colorado 1.

Courtesy Texas A&M