BIRMINGHAM – A pair of Aggies earned SEC track and field honors this week following their performances at the 88th Texas Relays. Senior sprinter Deon Lendore was selected as men’s Runner of the Week while junior Shelbi Vaughan shared the women’s Field Athlete of the Week.
Vaughan broke the meet record in the discus as she dominated the competition with a U.S. leading toss of 201 feet, 8 inches (61.48), which bettered the runner-up by 14 and a half feet. It was the third consecutive Texas Relays collegiate discus title for Vaughan, who also won a pair of prep titles in 2011 and 2012. She bettered the previous meet record of 199-2 set in 2006 by Nebraska’s Becky Breisch, who along with UCLA’s Suzy Powell each won three Texas Relays titles in the discus over a four-year span.
The throw of 201-8 was the third best mark in Vaughan’s career, trailing the A&M school record of 208-8 (63.60) she set in winning the 2014 SEC championship as well as a 204-2 (62.25) from her series at the conference meet.
Lendore anchored the Aggies to a pair of relay victories in the 4×100 and 4×400 to earn his first set of wins at the Texas Relays. It was two of four relays titles A&M earned during the weekend among the eight victories that garnered Most Outstanding Team honors for the Aggies.
A challenge in the sprint relay had Lendore catching the TCU anchor and winning the battle with LSU’s anchor leg, Aaron Ernest, with a collegiate leading 38.91 to 38.93 edge at the finish line while TCU finished third in 39.15. The 38.91 by A&M currently ranks fourth in the world for the 2015 season.
Texas Tech was the nearest challenger to the Aggies in the 4×400 where A&M’s world-leading 3:02.19 victory was capped with a 44.8 split by Lendore after previous legs by Gregory Coleman, Bralon Taplin and Shavez Hart. The Red Raiders finished second in 3:03.47 while Baylor and Florida both clocked 3:05.26. It was the first Texas Relays 4×400 win for the Aggies since 2011 when they set the meet record of 3:00.45.
Texas A&M travels to the Stanford Invitational this week for a two-day meet on Friday and Saturday.
