COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, April 02 — With no fewer than 5 dual meet records falling, for the second year in a row Texas took the measure of arch-rival Texas A&M in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Edrick Floréal’s Longhorn men prevailed over Pat Henry’s Aggies 105½–96½, as the Texas women won by an even tighter margin, 102–100.
Though the men’s outcome had been decided in the 3000 a few minutes before, Longhorn junior Jonathan Jones locked into the 4×4’s third leg anyway with a 43.47 carry against Brandon Miller (44.93) that keyed Texas’s 3:02.33 takedown of the event dual meet record. The race, set alight by the contest between NCAA indoor 800 champ Miller and outdoor collegiate leader Jones, erased TCU’s 3:02.74 dual standard, which had stood since ’86.
Of Jones, who had earlier taken the 400 45.07–45.25 from A&M frosh Emmanuel Bamidele, Floréal said, “We want to keep people guessing [about Jones’s identity as either a 400 or 800 man]. He’s definitely a guy who has next-level ability and I just want to give the kids the best chance by doing the very best they can, which means I need to be a little bit more strategic with what event he runs and how much I expose him.”
Though Jones “was supposed to cruise” his relay leg, Floréal said with a chuckle, “I guess when Brandon was on his leg he just decided, ‘To hell with what my coach told me. I’m just gonna do something different.’”
The 3000’s unexpected result sealed the Texas win. “I didn’t know we were going to go 1-2 in the 3K, cuz they have a guy that’s really good and we had to give him respect,” Floréal admitted. “We said, ‘With that we’ll get probably 6 points and with that we’ll have to run the 4×4 and get 2nd to win the meet.
“But Haftu Knight decided to go bonkers and we went 1-2 in the 3K and that really ended the meet for us. ‘Cause their 3K guy [Eric Casarez, who placed 4th] was clearly better than our guy. One big flip and here we go.”
A&M women collected a pair of dual meet records: soph Laila Owens’ 22.57 in the 200, plus soph Charokee Young’s world-leading 50.00 decimation of the old 400 standard. Aggie Kaylah Robinson’s 12.80 time in the 100H was a world leader, and Deborah Acquah’s 22-7¼ (6.89) LJ the best yet outdoors this year.
Nonetheless, the Longhorns too had firepower. Soph Julien Alfred took the 100 in a dual-record-equaling 11.07 and Tyra Gittens followed her LJ 2nd (21-7¼/6.58) with a high jump win that at last showed a return to form after her transfer from A&M.
Behind on misses to NCAA indoor titlist Lamara Distin through 6-3¼ (1.91) multi-talented senior Gittens went over 6-4 (1.93) on first try while Distin needed 3 and then over 6-4¾ (1.95) also on her first attempt to add a half-inch to the dual meet standard previously shared by past heavy hitters Amy Acuff and Brigetta Barrett.
Had the Gittens-Distin contest gone the other way, the meet might have ended in a tie.
Prior to this comp, said Floréal, ’21 NCAA hept champ Gittens “just hasn’t shown up like she should. The adjustment has to be hard. You’re with a team ‘all your life’ and now you go with the rival team because your husband moved to Austin and all of a sudden you’re competing for a different team and they’re sworn rivals. You’ve spent all your days hating Texas and now you’re one of us.
“She really has not performed to the way that I expect or the way she trains. But to her credit, she got here in January out of shape, recovering from COVID so it’s been a tough deal to make that big jump, and it was good.
“I think it was most important for her to do well there because doing well in that environment and then throwing the horns up at ’em was like, ‘OK, great.’ She just got caught up in the competition and decided, ‘I’m just not gonna lose.’”
Henry’s summation of a spectacular day: “It was a heck of a track meet and maybe one of the best dual meets I’ve ever been a part of; today was bigtime. My challenge as a coach was to try to put more points on the scoreboard than them, but the performances are most important right now than anything else we are doing. Winning a dual meet is important but not more important than performances.”
TEXAS MEN 105½—TEXAS A&M 96½
100(2.2): 1. **Devon Achane (TxAM) 10.12w; 2. **Marcellus Moore (Tx) 10.20w; 3. Emmanuel Yeboah’ (TxAM-Gha) 10.26w.
200(1.3): 1. Achane 20.20 PR (=CL).
400: 1. *Jonathan Jones’ (Tx-Bar) 45.07 (out CL);
2. ***Emmanuel Bamidele’ (TxAM-Ngr) 45.25; 3. *Willington Wright (Tx) 45.64 PR.
800: 1. ***Sam Whitmarsh (TxAM) 1:49.36 PR.
1500: 1. **Cruz Gomez (Tx) 3:42.68.
3000: 1. **Haftu Knight (Tx) 8:18.94.
St: 1. *Brady Grant (TxAM) 9:00.70 PR.
110H(0.9): 1. **Connor Schulman (TxAM) 14.00.
400H: 1. Gabriele Montefalcone’ (Tx-Ita) 49.42 PR;
2. *James Smith (TxAM) 49.53 =PR (=AmCL);
3. Charles Brockman (Tx) 50.57.
4 x 100: 1. Texas 39.08; 2. Texas A&M 39.14.
4 x 400: 1. Texas 3:02.33 (dual meet record—old, 3:02.74 TCU ’86 (Montefalcone’, Herron, Jones’ 43.47, Wright 45.55)
;… dnf—Texas A&M.
HJ: 1. **Carter Bajoit (TxAM) 6-10¾ (2.10).
PV: 1. *Zach Davis (TxAM) 16-8¾ (5.10) = PR.
LJ: 1. **Stacy Brown (Tx) 26-¼ (7.93) PR.
TJ: 1. Brown 46-3¼ (14.10).
SP: 1. Tripp Piperi (Tx) 70-7¾; 2. Jalil Brewer (Tx) 64-1¾ (19.55).
DT: 1. **Sean Stavinoha (Tx) 170-10 (52.08).
HT: 1. **Alessio Pirruccio’ (TxAM-Ita) 188-8 (57.52) PR.
JT: 1. ***Jack Garey (Tx) 194-11 (59.41).
TEXAS WOMEN 102—TEXAS A&M 100
100(0.3): 1. **Julien Alfred’ (Tx-StL) 11.07 NR (=dual meet record Merlene Ottey’ [Nb] ’83 & Aleia Hobbs [LSU] ’17) (=CL);
2. *Kynnedy Flannel (Tx) 11.34; 3. **Kevona Davis’ (Tx-Jam) 11.37.
200(0.0): I–1. **Alfred’ 23.10.
II(2.0)–1. **Laila Owens (TxAM) 22.57 PR (dual meet record—old, 22.71 Monique Henderson [UCLA] ’04 & Deanna Hill [USC] ’16 (out AL, CL);
2. **Rhasidat Adeleke’ (Tx-Ire) 22.59 NR.
400: 1. **Charokee Young’ (TxAM-Jam) 50.00 PR (WL, CL) (5, 7 C ) (dual meet record—old, 50.91 Monique Henderson [UCLA] ’05 & Jaide Stepter [USC] ’16);
2. *Stacey Ann Williams’ (Tx-Jam) 50.56;
3. *Kennedy Simon (Tx) 50.68 PR (AL, AmCL);
4. *Tierra Robinson-Jones (TxAM) 51.18.
800: 1. Avi’Tal Wilson-Perteete (TxAM) 2:06.56.
1500: 1. *Valery Tobias (Tx) 4:23.41 PR.
3000: 1. Annie Fuller (TxAM) 9:47.96.
St: 1. **Kelsie Vicknair (Tx) 10:36.73.
100H(1.7): 1. Kaylah Robinson (TxAM) 12.80 PR (WL, AL, CL);
2. **Emelia Chatfield (Tx) 13.04 PR.
400H(only 9 hurdles): 1. **Brooke Jaworski (Tx) 57.26; 2. Deshae Wise (TxAM) 58.46.
4 x 100: 1. Texas 42.82 (Alfred’, Adeleke’, Davis’, Flannel);
2. Texas A&M 43.23.
4 x 400: 1. Texas A&M 3:31.92; 2. Texas 3:35.31; 3. Texas A&M 3:36.61.
HJ: 1. Tyra Gittens’ (Tx-Tri) 6-4¾ (1.95) =NR (dual meet record—old, 6-4¼/1.94 Amy Acuff [UCLA] ’95 & Brigetta Barrett [Az] ’13) (missed 6-6/1.98);
2. *Lamara Distin’ (TxAM-Jam) 6-4 (1.93); 3. *Marleen Guerrero (Tx) 5-10¾ (1.80) PR.
PV: 1. ***Heather Abadie’ (TxAM-Can) 13-4½ (4.08).
LJ: 1. Deborah Acquah’ (TxAM-Gha) 22-7¼ (6.89) NR (out WL; CL) (10, x C) (f, 21-8¾w, f, 22-¾, 22-7¼, p) (f, 6.62w, f, 6.72, 6.89, p);
2. Gittens’ 21-7¼ (6.58); 3. ***Ackelia Smith’ (Tx-Jam) 21-2½ (6.46) PR.
TJ: 1. Acquah’ 45-5w (13.84); 2. Smith’ 43-8½ (13.32).
SP: 1. **Marilyn Nwora (Tx) 56-8½ (17.28) PR.
DT: 1. ***Chrystal Herpin (Tx) 155-9 (47.47).
HT: 1. **Kiana Lowery (Tx) 158-2 (48.20).
JT: 1. ***Lianna Davidson’ (TxAM-Aus) 176-4 (53.74); 2. ***Katelyn Fairchild (TxAM) 162-11 (49.67).
