Texas A&M dominates Bruins in sweeping dual meet at UCLA

Saturday, April 16

Los Angeles, Calif.

All Day

Texas A&M

175

115

UCLA (dual)

Photo by: Errol Anderson

Apr 16, 2016 | Track and Field

WESTWOOD, California – Texas A&M swept UCLA in the dual meet hosted by the Bruins on Saturday in Drake Stadium. The No. 1 Aggie men scored 94 points versus 51 for No. 7 UCLA while the No. 2 A&M women totaled 81 points against the 64 for No. 3 UCLA.

"This is a big win for our program," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "Any time you come out and dual a team like UCLA it shows team strength. That's what we have right now. I've very pleased with our team and we didn't line up everybody today as well."

Overall the Aggies totaled 21 victories among the 34 events contested. The A&M men had 12 wins with the Aggie women supplying nine.

The highlight victory for the men's team was a school record performance by Hector Hernandez, who claimed the 800m in 1:46.29. On the women's side winning highlights included Maggie Malone, who threw the javelin 193-10 for the second best performance at A&M behind her school record 198-0, while freshman Jazmine Fray recorded the second fastest time in Aggie history to claim the 800m in 2:05.72.

"For Hector the four years he has spent with us it's just a pleasure to watch him get on the track every time," noted Henry. "The guy works very hard. He was trying to get the Olympic standard today of 1:46.00 and he's going a great job."

Wins for the A&M men also included Grady Young, hammer (163-4); Sam Hardin, javelin (229-2); Audie Wyatt, pole vault (17-6 ½); Will Williams, long jump (25-5 ½); Latario Collie, triple jump (53-8 ¾); Fred Kerley, 400m (45.37); Robert Grant, 400m hurdles (50.17); Elijah Morrow, 200m (20.92 into -1.8 wind); Alex Riba, 1,500m (3:48.98); and the 4x100 (40.06) and 4x400 (3:07.09) relays.

The Aggie women victories also included Shelbi Vaughan, discus (191-9); Annie Kunz, 100m hurdles (13.79); Briyahna Desrosiers, 400m (53.07); Brenessa Thompson, 100m (11.49); Shamier Little, 400m hurdles (56.38); Aaliyah Brown, 200m (23.18); and the 4x400 relay (3:40.03).

Of the 17 events contested, eight were field events and nine were running events. The Aggie men had a 10 point edge through the field events, 41 to 31, and then pulled away with a 53-20 decisive margin in the running events. The UCLA women held a 45-27 advantage from the field events while A&M dominated the running events to the tune of a 63-19 edge.

The women's score following the conclusion of the pole vault was tied at 52 points with five events remaining. Then the Aggies went 1-2 in the 800m, 1-3 in the 400m hurdles, 1-3 in the 200m, 2-3 in the 1,500m and won the 4x400.

"We hammered them from that point onward," stated Henry. "Our team knew they had to do some things. That was good to see. On the men's side we started off right and stayed that way all the way through. The team competed very well."

Hernandez led a 1-3-4-5 finish for A&M in the 800m as he bettered the previous school record of 1:46.43 set by Michael Preble in 2012. The 1:46.29 by Hernandez is the second fastest time ever recorded in a dual meet, trailing only a 1:46.20 run by Oregon's Elijah Greer in 2013.

"I was happy with that time in my first open 800 outdoors," noted Hernandez. "I really wanted to get a 1:45, but to come here and run 1:46 low in this type of competition was good. I felt good today, so I know I can get the standard. I'm happy with the race and setting a school record."

Finishing behind Hernandez, who led the field through 400m with a 51.4, were UCLA's Nick Hartle in 1:46.73 and then the A&M trio of JaQwae Ellison in 1:48.54, which is No. 10 on the Aggie all-time list, Efrain Hernandez (1:48.90) and Donavan Brazier (1:51.56).

Malone, the current U.S. and collegiate leader, won the javelin with a throw of 193-10 (59.09), which is the second best performance at Texas A&M behind her school record 198-0. Malone, who ranks No. 3 on the collegiate all-time list and No. 5 on the U.S. all-time list, led an Aggie sweep of the event. Audrey Malone finished second with a 167-7 (51.09) and Kristen Clark placed third at 164-11 (50.28).

Fray just missed the A&M school record of 2:05.49 set by Suzanne Sheffield in 1983 with her winning time of 2:05.72 while Katie Willard placed second in 2:06.23. The Aggie pair produced the No. 2 and No. 3 times on the A&M all-time list.

Williams jumped 25-5 ½ into a -2.0 headwind in equaling his mark at No. 10 on the A&M all-time list. Latario Collie faced a lesser headwind of -1.0 in claiming the triple jump with a 53-8 ¼ effort as Jeffrey Prothro placed second at 50-4 ½ (15.35). Lathone Collie (49-3) completed the 9-0 sweep of points as he finished third.

In the men's pole vault Wyatt led an A&M 1-2-3 sweep as he cleared 17-6 ½ (5.35) and then attempted the Olympic Games qualifying standard of 18-8 ¼ (5.70). Jacob Wooten was runner-up with a 17-2 ¾, Chase Wolfle finished third at 16-10 ¾ and Carl Johansson placed fourth with a 16-6 ¾ (5.05).

Sara Kathryn Stevens placed second in the pole vault, clearing 13-6 ½ (4.13) and missing three attempts at equaling the school record of 13-10 ½ (4.23). Stevens matched the winning height of UCLA's Greta Wagner, but had more misses at 13-6 ½.

The Aggies claimed the men's javelin with an 8-1 advantage from the 1-2 finish of Sam Hardin (229-2 | 69.86) and Lindon Victor (224-8 | 68.48). Victor later threw the discus 166-6 (50.76) for fourth place as he teamed up with Jeff Bartlett, who finished second with a 181-2 (55.22). Bartlett also had a season best of 56-10 ¼ for fourth place in the shot put.

Vaughan won the women's discus with a 191-9 (58.44) while Celine Markert placed third (165-8 | 50.50). Markert's debut in the hammer led to a mark of 154-2, which is No. 10 on the Aggie all-time list, while Carissa van Beek (193-3) and Alison Ondrusek (186-7) placed second and third. In the men's hammer the 163-4 by Young moved him to No. 8 on the A&M all-time list.

Impressive times in the 400m continued for Kerley as he ran 45.37 for the win with teammate Deon Hickey runner-up in 46.73 while Richard Rose placed fourth in 47.45. Desroiers won the women's 400m in 53.07 and led an A&M 1-2-3 finish with Jarra Owens (55.02) and Glorilisha Carter (55.78) following.

Grant led an Aggie 1-2-3 sweep of points in the men's 400m hurdles. Following the 50.17 win by Grant, Aikan Graham followed in 51.46 with DeWitt Thomas third at 52.06.

To complete the meet Grant ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 as A&M won in 3:07.09 while another crew of Aggies, anchored by Daniel Martin, placed second in 3:07.83. The first three legs on the winning squad included Thomas, Rose, and E. Hernandez. The runner-up squad included Hickey, Brazier, and Ellison.

In the closest race of the day, separated by 0.003, came in the women's 4x100 as the UCLA women claimed a 43.905 to 43.908 decision over A&M as both teams were timed in 43.91. Kylie Price anchored for the Bruins as the Aggie line-up included Diamond Spaulding, Krystal Sparling, Brenessa Thompson and Aaliyah Brown.

Later in the meet Thompson won the 100 in 11.49 with Sparling runner-up at 11.53 ahead of Price (11.60) in third. Then in the 200m it was Brown posting a 23.18 victory over UCLA's Anglerne Annelus (23.24) with A&M's Sparling (23.25), Spaulding (23.38) and Thompson (23.52) finishing 3-4-5.

After scoring a career best of 5,904 earlier this week in the heptathlon to win the California Invitational, Kunz led a 1-2 effort in the 100m hurdles with a 13.79 as Ebony Crear posted a 13.88 as runner-up. In the 400m hurdles Crear set a career best of 58.86, moving to No. 11 on the A&M all-time list, in finishing behind Little's winning mark of 56.38.

In the 1,500 the Aggies were led by runners who competed in longer distance races the previous couple of evenings at the Mt. SAC Relays. Riba won the men's race in 3:48.98 over UCLA's Nolan Dickson (3:50.01) while the Aggies claimed the next four places with Austin Wells (3:50.67), Elliott Farris (3:51.56), Ryan Teel (3:55.39) and Colin Stoeber (3:56.26).

UCLA's Taylor Taite won the women's 1,500 in 4:33.96 ahead of the A&M trio of Katie Watson (4:36.74), Karis Jochen (4:36.93) and Laura Craig (4:37.01). On Friday evening Jochen placed seventh in the 5,000m with a 16:39.62 (No. 7 at A&M), Wells finished sixth in the men's 5,000m posting a 14:05.61 (No. 9 at A&M), while Riba won the second section of the 5k in 14:20.47 (No. 13 at A&M).

The Aggie men won the 4x100 in 40.06 without the services of Devin Jenkins, who missed the 100 and 200 as well. The A&M line-up included Williams, Kerley, Sims and Morrow. The women's 4x400 won in 3:40.03 with a squad of Little, Owens, Fray and Desrosiers.