Track and Field | Dec 12, 2015 |
Michelle-Lee breaks two Reveille Indoor meet records
4th win of year: Michelle-Lee AhyeCOLLEGE 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. 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).
"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.
"This was my first meet for Texas A&M and my first time running in a Texas A&M uniform so I was so excited and I was ready to go."
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). In the first lap, White led the field with a 31.87. Then Fray moved into the lead and held it for the remainder of the race.
"I wanted to go faster, so I took the lead and it felt really good," stated 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. "My 600m time was where I wanted it to be and in my last 400 I knew I really wanted to kick as much as I could.
"It's really good going forward for my 800. Even though it's only an extra 200m, it gives you the strength and endurance as well as confidence to know what you can go through in the 800."
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.
Josh Hernandez served as rabbit in the race, covering the first two laps in 58.89 and going through the halfway point in 2:00.32. Then Brazier led the field the remainder of the race, posting 3:07.38 with two laps remaining. He ran the last two laps in 60.05 and final lap in 28.72.
"We had a rabbit for the mile and had set a time of 1:57, but it felt too fast," said Brazier, who has career bests of 4:07.15 in the mile and 1:47.55 in the 800. "I like to sit and kick. With the distance guys we had in the race I knew if I could stay with them through three-quarters of the race then I could outkick them. But I ended up leading the latter half of the race."
Brazier later ran a 47.46 leg on the Aggie 4x400 relay, repeating a double he did on a regular basis in high school.
"Usually during conference or regionals I would combine the two," explained Brazier. "Today I left it all out there for the mile, because I knew that was my individual race. My main goal in the 4x400 was to get out and beat Houston and TCU. I want to get my split down, though, 47.4 isn't going to cut it at Texas A&M."
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.
"I'll take 17-5 any day for my first meet," said Wyatt, who has an indoor best of 17-6 ¼. "Today I felt really good and having Jason here really pushed me. I came into the meet hoping to beat him or keep up with him since he is a good competitor.
"I think he got a little ahead of himself passing those heights. It kind of freaked me out when he skipped from 17-1 to 18-3. I got a little ahead of myself and I asked coach if I could skip too, but I'm glad I didn't. I stayed the course."
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 4x400 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 4x400 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).
A second group of Track Station ran 3:10.93 to win another section of the 4x400 with squad that included former Houston Cougar Errol Nolan (47.54) along with A&M All-Americans Gregory Coleman (47.45), Carlyle Roudette (48.30) and Ricky Babineaux (47.66).
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 4x400 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.
