Aggies set several records at indoor track meet

The Texas A&M track and field team earned a split of the championships in the Aggies' final A&M Challenge as a member of the Big 12.

In a meet that featured high-caliber athletes and tradition-rich programs, A&M provided the key points for the Big 12 team that won the men's team title, beating the Pac-12 277 1/4 -227 1/4 on Saturday at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium.

With Florida's win in the 1,600-meter relay, the Southeastern Conference won the women's title 216-214 over the Big 12.

Texas Tech joined A&M for the Big 12 against Florida and Tennessee from the SEC and Pac-12 representatives Oregon and Arizona State.

So who will represent the Big 12 next year?

"We'll have Tech here," said A&M coach Pat Henry, who pioneered this meet's format when the Gilliam Indoor Stadium opened. "Texas won't come over here. We may get Baylor to come in or somebody. It just depends how that all plays out. We may just have a six-team scored meet and not do it where we're going conference against conference."

Henry just likes having full teams competing head-to-head.

"Everybody here tries to enter everything and have a team," he said. "There aren't many schools that do that, and this group of schools does."

A&M senior Joey Roberts ran the first 200 of his 800 victory in 24.6 seconds and never lost the lead. Challenged on the final lap by Florida's Sean Obinwa, Roberts held him off at the finish in an A&M school record 1:47.14 -- also an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA indoor meet as well as the nation's fastest collegiate time this season.

"With me, it's no guts, no glory," Roberts said. "Anyone who has run with me knows that I am going to set the pace hard. They know that I don't like to run other peoples' races. This early, I could not have imagined that I would be six or seven or eight weeks ahead of where I was last year."

Michael Preble, who set the previous school indoor 800 record, led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Aggies in the 600-yard run, timed at 1:08.56.

With seven laps remaining in the 3,000, A&M's Natosha Rogers and Florida's Cory McGee appeared to make to make it a match race. In the final 1,000, though, Rogers turned it into a runaway, sprinting to the finish in a school record 9:12.83. Melissa Gulli owned the old school mark of 9:24.96 set in 2004.

"I wanted to get out right away, get in a comfortable position and just hold my pace," Rogers said. "I didn't really have a strategy going into it, but I felt good so I just went."

It was Rogers' third school record in as many weeks, moving up from the mile this week. She had run the final leg on A&M's distance medley relay Friday.

Laura Asimakis continued to inch up her A&M record in the pole vault, clearing 13-11.

"The level of competition was very good and any time you have the level of schools here, everybody is going to step it up," Henry said. "It was pretty evident what was going on. Everybody likes this kind of meet, and they all want to come back. I hope it's a regular competition."

Aggie sophomore Prezel Hardy won the 60 in 6.72 in a testing race for the runners who had a long wait in their blocks.

"Whenever there is a false start or a disqualification or anything like that, it's very difficult," said Hardy of a second start in the 60 after a runner was disqualified. "It's a short race, and it's also a mental race. You have to have the mental stability to get yourself focused and back in the race."

In the 200, A&M's Ameer Webb edged out Hardy. The reigning Big 12 Athlete of the Week, Webb won the 200 for the second straight week at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium, this time in 20.98 to Hardy's 20.99.

A&M's Ricky Babineaux made a daring move to the lead at the end of the first half of the 400, and it paid off for a win in 46.87.

"There's always a race to the break," Babineaux said. "It's not so much your first 200 but who makes it to the break first, and I was getting a little aggressive and taking a little chance. I've got to use my foot speed to get the break."

A&M's Casey Strong threw 61-1 1/2 on the final preliminary try in the men's weight throw for a school record, but Strong finished second to fellow junior Jeremy Postin of Florida, whose won at 65-9.

A&M's Wayne Davis II was not distracted when Texas Tech's Shane Brathwaite hit the first hurdle and hit the track in the 60 hurdles. Davis won in a meet record 7.78.

The 200 was a highlight for the Olympic development events held at the A&M Challenge. Former A&M All-American Demetrius Pinder won the men's race in 20.53. Porscha Lucas ran 23.75 to win that women's sprint.

Ashton Eaton, the NCAA decathlon champion when he competed for Oregon, ran a 7.73 60-meter hurdles in the men's Olympic development race.

Arizona State's Nick Happe shot past A&M's Henry Lelei and Oregon's Brian Shrader on the backstretch of the final lap and won the men's 3,000 in 8:00.66. Lelei did take the school record in the event with a second-place time of 8:01.01.

Dominique Duncan won the 200 for A&M in 23.54. Tiffany Singleton (1:22.82) won the women's 600.

Florida's Gray Horn ran 2:44.09, finishing second in the 1,000 meters, the final event of the heptathlon. Horn won five events and finished no worse than a tie for second in the other two with a personal record points total of 5,971.

Florida's Omar Craddok won the long jump in 24-7, beating A&M's Jonathan Turner by two inches. Craddock, a junior, is a former Killeen High School standout.

Tennessee's defending NCAA Indoor champion Chanelle Price won a competitive women's 800 in a meet record 2:05.33, despite a strong challenge from Oregon junior Anne Kesselring, who was overtaken as the runners moved onto the flat portion near the finish. Kesselring ran 2:05.77. Oregon's Jordan Hasay (4:37.29) and Becca Friday (4:37.53) each bettered the meet record in the mile.