COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M dominated the Triangular meet they hosted Saturday in completing a sweep of the team titles over LSU and Texas Tech in front of 1,288 fans inside Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
The Aggie men, now 8-0 in dual meet scored meets over the past six seasons, totaled 135.5 points to better LSU (90.5) and Texas Tech (85). The A&M women, who improved to 5-3 among indoor dual meets, amassed 140 points in topping LSU (94) and Texas Tech (80).
Texas A&M totaled 20 victories in the less than three-hour meet, with the Aggie men and women each claiming 10 wins apiece. Of the six meet records set by A&M, four were by the Aggie men and two from the women. Among the 20 A&M victories, nine included a 1-2 finish for the Aggies while four had A&M claiming first and third place.
Brea Garrett led the Aggie women in scoring 12 points from the weight throw and shot put. Garrett broke her own school record with a massive heave of 68-3.75 (20.82) to win the weight throw and added a 47-6.25 (14.48) runner-up effort in the shot put.
Denise Hinton of LSU challenged Garrett in the weight throw, taking the lead in round two with a 67-9.5 (20.66). That lead held through round five, until Garrett hit her big mark on the final throw for the victory. Both Garrett and Hinton bettered the previous meet record of 65-1.25 (19.84) set by Hinton last year.
Competing in his first open 400 of the season, Deon Lendore (Trinidad & Tobago) established a world leading time of 45.74 to break the meet record of 45.91 he set a year ago. The junior sprinter from Trinidad & Tobago also bettered the indoor collegiate dual meet record he established in last year’s meet. Aggie teammate Carlyle Roudette was just a tenth off his PR set last week in clocking 46.58 for runner-up in the 400.
Both 4×400 units closed out the Triangular with meet records as they each lowered their own world-leading marks set just a week ago.
In running a time of 3:34.15, taking three seconds off their previous best (3:37.16) this season, the Aggie women ran with a foursome of Shamier Little (55.13), Ibukun Mayungbe (53.49), Kamaria Brown (52.48) and Olivia Ekpone (53.06). A&M put four seconds on runner-up LSU (3:38.22) with Texas Tech (3:39.12) finishing third.
Texas A&M broke the meet record of 3:35.39 set by Texas in 2010 and produced the No. 11 time on the Aggie all-time list.
An anchor leg of 45.22 by Lendore had the A&M men finishing in a meet record time of 3:05.43 to break the Aggie mark of 3:05.92 set in 2010. The time lowered the world leading mark of 3:05.68 A&M set last week and is No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list.
Deon Hickey (48.64) ran the lead-off leg for the Aggies and was followed by Aldrich Bailey, Jr. (45.77), Roudette (45.82) and Lendore. LSU finished second in 3:08.84 with Texas Tech third in 3:15.77.
Wayne Davis II equaled the meet record of 7.75 in capturing the 60 hurdles with relative ease. He matched the time set by LSU’s Barrett Nugent in 2011. Joshua Lamers of LSU finished second in 7.98 with Tech’s Shujaa Benson third in 8.08.
Ryan Miller claimed a meet record in winning the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:20.76. A final kick moved Miller past LSU’s Phillip Primeaux (8:20.99) over the final stages of the race. Both bettered the meet record of 8:21.27 set in 2013 by Cale Wallace of Arkansas. With a time of 9:54.47 Amanda Jenkins won the women’s 3,000m with Gabby Salazar taking second in 10:00.41.
The Aggies opened the Triangular by sweeping the mile as Hillary Montgomery ran 4:53.81 for the women’s title and A&M frosh Alex Riba clocked 4:08.07 for the men’s victory. Finishing third in each race were Grace Fletcher (4:56.06) and Isaac Spencer (4:09.05). Montgomery’s time is the No. 7 performance at A&M while Fletcher became the No. 7 performer on the Aggie all-time list.
Continuing to scale new heights in the pole vault, Brittany Wooten set a career best of 13-2.5 (4.03) for a victory, moving to No. 4 all-time at A&M with the No. 8 performance. Runner-up was Haley Cook of Texas Tech with a clearance of 12-4.75.
In the women’s 400 Janeil Bellille (Trinidad & Tobago) won the event with a career best of 53.58, the No. 5 time at A&M, while Little posted a 53.64 from another section to place second overall. Little’s mark equals the No. 6 time on the A&M all-time list. Bellille also ran the 400m leg on the Aggie distance medley relay, splitting 52.89 as she moved A&M from third to first on her carry. The Aggies ended up third, running a 12:01.54.
Prior to her anchor leg on the 4×400 relay Ekpone won the 60 meters in a career best of 7.30 seconds, No. 6 all-time at A&M, and placed a non-scoring fourth in the 200 (23.55). The Aggie women went 1-2-3-4-6-7 in the 60 meters. Following Ekpone were Jennifer Madu (7.33), Ashley Collier (7.36), K. Brown (7.36), Aaliyah Brown (7.46) and Ashton Purvis (7.49).
Brown posted a winning time of 23.10 in the 200 with Purvis runner-up in 23.48. Bailey won the men’s 200 in a time of 20.94. Prezel Hardy, Jr. and Michael Bryan went 1-2 in the 60 with times of 6.77 and 6.79 over the LSU tandem of Tremayne Acy (6.80) and Aaron Ernest (6.91).
Olabanji Asekun led the Aggie men in scoring with 11 points as he won the long jump with a leap of 24-2.5 (7.37) and finished third in the triple jump at 48-1.25 (14.66). Jonathan Turner (22-9) added a runner-up effort in the long jump.
Casey Strong scored 10 points in the meet as he won the weight throw with a mark of 65-11.75 (20.11), the No. 3 performance at A&M, and placed fourth in the shot put at 52-1.25 (15.88). Ben Skrla (58-10) finished third in the weight.
Hector Hernandez (1:52.22) and Josh Hernandez (1:52.37) gave A&M a 1-2 finish in the 800 while Aliese Hyde (2:10.15) finished second in the women’s 800 with the No. 7 performance all-time at A&M.
Another Aggie 1-2 finish came in the women’s triple jump where LaQue Moen-Davis used one attempt to win with a 41-8.5 (12.71) while Haley Gooch secured second place with a 39-8 (12.09). Moen-Davis had three fouls in the long jump, where Madu placed second with a career best of 20-0.25 (6.10) to equal the No. 6 mark on the A&M all-time list.
Jena Hemann cleared 5-8 to win the high jump and added an impressive 40-10.5 (12.46) in the shot put for fourth place. Chase Wolfle matched the winning height of 17-1.5 (5.22) in the pole vault, but finished second based on misses to LSU’s Joseph Caraway.
The Aggie men’s distance medley relay finished second in 10:13.01 with the foursome of Cameron Villarreal (3:09.25), Greg Coleman (48.35), Gaines Kinsey (1:56.91) and Ryan Teel (4:18.51). Texas Tech won the race in 10:10.49 with LSU third at 10:21.17. Earlier in the meet Kinsey finished fourth in the 800 with a 1:53.28.
