COLLEGE STATION – Aggie frosh Jazmine Fray challenged the Texas A&M school record while winning the 1,000 meters in 2 minutes, 50.39 seconds during the eighth edition of the Reveille Invitational, which opened the indoor season in front of 1,327 fans inside the Gilliam Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Another Aggie freshman, Donavan Brazier, set the meet record in the mile with a 4:07.86 clocking while A&M sophomore Audie Wyatt broke the pole vault meet record with a 17-5 clearance. Senior Daniel Martin improved his winning score in the pentathlon with a tally of 3,706 points.
“It’s December and I talked to our team about being good in June,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. “We’re fortunate to be able to get on the track today and compete. We have this meet so athletes can figure out where they are as a result of the training they’ve done to this point. No matter how hard you train, though, we can see who is competitive. That’s what we’ve seen today.”
Meet records were also set by Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago in the women’s 60 and 200 meters with times of 7.14 and 23.19, along with TCU’s tandem of Ronnie Baker in the men’s 60 (6.61) and Brianna McGhee in the 60 hurdles (8.26).
Winning the race in a meet record time of 2:50.39 left Fray trailing the school record mark of 2:49.01 set in 2003 by Angeles Pantoja during the Big 12 Championships. Fray eclipsed the Reveille meet record of 2:52.66 set by Katie Willard last season.
“I had a lot of confidence going into the race,” noted Fray. “I definitely wanted to break the school record. That’s what I was going for. I’m not disappointed that I missed it, I’m really happy with my performance. It was a really good race and I set a PR.”
Willard claimed the women’s mile in 5:00.34 this weekend ahead of teammates Laura Craig (5:02.62) and Katie Watson (5:03.23).
Fray clipped off splits of 32.10, 35.23 (1:07.33), 35.36 (1:42.68), 35.02 (2:17.70) and 32.70 in achieving the victory over Houston’s Ebony White (2:52.70). Fray, who is from Long Island, New York, holds career best times of 2:09.07 in the 800 and 4:37.85 in the 1,500 meters.
Michigan native Brazier had a spirited race over the mile distance with his teammates as the top five Aggie finishers bettered the 4:14.22 standard set last season by Sam Houston’s Jeffrey Moore.
Brazier edged Riba, who is from Illinois, at the line, 4:07.86 to 4:08.17, as Hector Hernandez finished third in 4:11.34. Nathan Ricketts (4:13.13) and Ian Cazares (4:13.85) battled for the fourth position. The time by Brazier ranks No. 14 on the A&M all-time list while Riba missed his indoor PR by just a tenth of a second.
A game of passing heights occurred in the pole vault as facility record holder Jason Colwick opted to skip 17-5 and 17-9 after he made 17-1. Wyatt had made first attempt clearances at 16-7 ¼, 17-1 and 17-5 before missing three attempts at 17-9. When Colwick missed his three attempts at 18-3, the victory went to Wyatt with Colwick runner-up.
Wyatt’s 17-5 mark improved the meet record of 17-0 ¾ set by Taylor Reed of UTSA in 2012. Aggie Carl Johansson finished third (16-7 ¼) with Jacob Wooten fourth (16-1 ¼) while Chase Wolfle no heighted at 16-7 ¼.
Martin closed out his pentathlon victory with a strong run in the 1,000 meters as he scored 984 points from a 2:30.32 clocking, which would have placed him third in the open 1,000m.
Scoring 3,706 points placed Martin ahead of teammates Nathan Hite (3,493) and Ben Zook (3,350). Martin ran 8.41 (881 points) in the 60 hurdles, had a 21-3 ¼ (693) in the long jump, 37-5 ¼ (571) in the shot put, and cleared 5-8 ½ (577) in the high jump.
Shamier Little ran second leg of the winning 4×400 relay for the A group of Aggies, splitting 53.06 in moving the squad into first place. The relay, which won in 3:39.65, included Krystal Sparling (55.30), Little, Jazmine Fray (55.17) and Aaliyah Brown (56.13).
The B group of Aggies, posting a 3:43.03, finished second with a crew of Jarra Owens (55.78), Briyahna Desrosiers (53.64), Diamond Spaulding (56.27) and Brenessa Thompson (57.35). TCU finished third in 3:43.27 with Houston fourth in 3:47.15.
Track Station, comprised of Aggie All-Americans, won the men’s 4×400 relay in 3:07.11 with the foursome of Deon Lendore (46.52), Bralon Taplin (45.74), Demetrius Pinder (46.12) and Shavez Hart (48.73).
Texas A&M men posted a time of 3:08.38 to defeat Houston (3:12.91) and a second Aggie unit (3:13.20) while TCU ran the first three legs of the relay. The first Aggie crew consisted of Deon Hickey (47.40), Fred Kerley (46.72), Donavan Brazier (47.46) and Richard Rose (46.80).
The second A&M squad included Ilolo Izu (48.34), Hector Hernandez (48.25), Robert Grant (48.33), and Gaines Kinsey (48.28).
A pair of winning Aggies moved to No. 3 on the A&M women’s all-time lists in the pole vault and weight throw.
Sara Kathryn Stevens set an indoor PR by clearing 13-4 ¼ (4.07) to become the No. 3 performer with the No. 8 performance at A&M. Stevens’ series included first attempt clearances at 11-6 ¼ and 12-4, two attempts at 12-8 and a first make of 12-11 ½.
In the weight throw Carissa van Beek set a South African record with her effort of 62-4 (19.00) in defeating teammate Alison Ondrusek (60-8 ¾) and TCU’s Paola Miranda (58-0 ¼). The previous best by van Beek was 60-0 ¼ (18.29) she set in the SEC Championships last season.
Shaina Burns won the shot put with a mark of 46-8 (14.22) that moved her to No. 10 on the A&M all-time list and would have scored her 809 points in a multi-event. She finished ahead of Aggie frosh Celine Markert (44-5 ½).
Burns and Annie Kunz competed in a few events that are in a pentathlon during the Reveille Invitational. In the 60 hurdles Kunz ran 8.78 with Burns posting a 9.36. Kunz cleared 5-5 ¾ in the high jump with Burns getting over 5 ¼. Kunz finished her day with a 56.15 carry on an Aggie 4×400 relay.
First and second place combos for A&M also included Samuel McSwain and Garrett Gragin as both cleared 6-10 ¼ in the high jump, Jennifer Madu (7.44) and Krystal Sparling (7.45) in the 60, Aaliyah Brown (23.66) and Diamond Spaulding (23.69) in the 200, Efrain Hernandez (2:28.49) and Gaines Kinsey (2:28.66) in the 1,000m, as well as Jeffrey Prothro (23-0) and Lindon Victor (22-8 ½) in the long jump.
