In front of nearly 1,300 fans, the Texas A&M men’s and women’s track & field teams wowed spectators winning ten events, including Trinidad and Tobago’s national Tyra Gittens setting a school record in the heptathlon Saturday at E.B. Cushing Stadium to complete the two-day invitational.
After finishing day one of the heptathlon with 3,869 points, Gittens continued to put on a show winning the heptathlon with a Texas A&M school record of 6,274 points. She bettered her previous school record by 200 points and currently leads the NCAA. Her point total makes her the seventh-best performer in collegiate history.
The multi-athlete started the day scoring 1,062 points in the long jump at 6.67m (w/+3.6). Gittens opened the event with a wind-legal jump of 21-6/6.55m, which puts her as the No. 2 performer all-time in Aggie history. In round two she landed at 21-7.25/6.58m before soaring out to 21-10.75, both jumps exceeded the legal wind measurements of +2.0 to land on the all-time list.
Gittens followed by winning the javelin with a toss of 38.13m (631 points) and placed second in the 800m at 2:28.52 (712 points), finishing the day with a total of 6,274 points.
Jamaican Lamara Distin, representing Texas A&M, highlighted the field events on day two by winning the women’s high jump at 1.83m, besting the facility record set the day before by teammate Gittens at 1.82m. It was the third time this season that Distin cleared 6-feet or higher.
The Maroon & White continued to put on a show claiming multiple individual events and two relays. The men’s 4x100m relay of Ryan Martin, Lance Broome, Jace Comick and Emmanuel Yeboah blazed the track at a time of 39.91. Connor Schulman won the 110m hurdles with a wind-legal time of 14.00, breaking the previous facility record by .64 seconds.
Less than 10-minutes later, Syaira Richardson claimed the women’s 400m event title at a season-best time of 52.42.
Texas A&M showed its dominance in the men’s 800m finishing five Aggies in the top six. Freshman Brandon Miller paced the way with a personal best and facility time of 1:48.25, his time is currently No. 2 in the Southeastern Conference. Senior Carlton Orange followed in second at a season-best time of 1:48.40, while junior Moitalel Mpoke rounded out the top three at a time of 1:49.07.
Senior Devin Dixon finished fifth at 1:51.89, while freshman Caden Norris ran a personal best 1:51.91 to place sixth.
The women’s 4x400m finished the night off astonishing fans with a facility record time of 3:26.73. The Aggie quartet of Tierra Robinson-Jones, Syaira Richardson, Charokee Young and Athing Mu clocked the fourth-fastest 4x400m time in Aggie history and the fastest all-time in a non-championship meet.
Other notable performances in field events include Sean Clarke (pole vault) and Alessio Pirruccio (hammer throw) each recording Aggie all-time top-12 marks.
Clarke placed second in the pole vault at 17-9/5.41m, making him the eighth-best performer in Aggie history. Pirruccio became the fifth-best performer in the hammer throw with a toss of 185-8/56.60m.
Over the two-day competition, the Aggies recorded nearly 20 personal bests, won 10 events and set four Texas A&M all-time top-12 marks.
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Great things Tyra.🇹🇹🇹🇹
Well done to the Caribbean athletes. Tyra 🇹🇹🇹🇹doing great things.