BIRMINGHAM – Trinidad & Tobago's national and Texas A&M junior Deon Lendore (Len-DOOR) received the SEC Men’s Runner of the Week honor following the world-leading time he set in the 400 meters this past weekend. Lendore won the event during the Texas A&M Triangular with a time of 45.74 seconds.
On a weekend that included Chris Brown of the Bahamas clocking 45.93 in Glasglow, Scotland and Florida’s Arman Hall posting a 45.84 on Kentucky’s oversized track, Lendore topped both efforts as he broke his own meet record of 45.91 in the 400, lowering the indoor collegiate dual meet record he set in 2013.
Lendore, the A&M school record holder at 45.15, has now recorded four of the top five performances on the Aggie all-time list. His 45.74 is the No. 5 performance and is the fastest time by an A&M athlete in the month of January, lowering the previous best of 45.81 set by Tabarie Henry on Jan. 30, 2010.
Lendore also anchored the Aggie 4×400 relay to a world-leading time of 3:05.43 with a 45.22 split. The winning effort broke the meet record of 3:05.92 set by A&M in 2010 and is No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list.
ACADEMIC HONORS
Academic honors were recently awarded to a senior Melissa Mays and junior LaQue Moen-Davis as they each received Third Team Academic Momentum Award and were among seven Texas A&M athletes who were part of the 40 student-athletes to be recognized nationally.
The nominations for the Scholar Baller program, in conjunction with the National Consortium for Academic s and Sports (NCAS) were based on each student-athlete’s academic improvement and the impact each student-athlete’s academic performance has on his or her classmates, teammates, academic advisors and professors.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
Following a pair of impressive team victories in the Triangular meet over LSU and Texas Tech, the Aggies now occupy the No. 1 position in the men’s and women’s national dual meet rankings from Track & Field News.
Updated national team computer rankings from the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association have the Aggie women ranked No. 3 while the A&M men are No. 5.
The Aggies travel for the first time this indoor season as they compete in the Arkansas Razorback Invitational on Friday andSaturday. Teams scheduled to compete in addition to Texas A&M and the host Razorbacks include Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Texas and Tulsa.
Ranked teams among the men’s field include No. 1 Arkansas, No. 2 Florida, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 6 Florida State, No. 10 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Texas and No. 20 Stanford. The women’s field features six squads currently ranked among the top 10 in the nation with No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Florida, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 9 Stanford and No. 17 Florida State.
