The chairwoman of Somalia's athletics federation was suspended after an untrained sprinter was allowed to represent the country at the World University Games. The runner took more than 21 seconds to complete the 100-meter race https://t.co/uB1Q6pFSnU pic.twitter.com/RI8VuvudIt

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 4, 2023

Abigail Martin of Jamaica wins the silver in the U20 Pan Am discus with a throw of 182'0 or 55.47! Close to her PR! Can't wait to have her on campus!

Do y'all have any athletes you think will have a breakout year in 2024?

Personally I'm excited to see Eric Hemphill III healthy. Seeing him in the 4x400 at the national meet got me excited to see what he can do in the open.

He's the first name that comes to mind but there are so many names that pop up as I think more. Sam Whitmarsh with a healthy season behind him will be a monster, DeMarco Escobar will be good, Auhmad got back to the track after a couple years of no running and he'll be a good one. Not to mention Ondrej in the 1500m coupled with Chandon and Cooper.

On the women's side, Jermaisha Arnold will have the 400m to herself after most of the big names in the NCAA turned pro. The Semira/Camryn duo will be fun to watch.
Basically the entire team with a year under their belts are going to be a force to be reckoned with!

Obviously I'm excited, but would love to hear y'all's thoughts as well

Agree with everything you said! A breakout star for me will be Bryce McCray, he improved throughout the year coming off an injury where he had no offseason training! I feel with an off season of training he will be good to go and get to a low 49! Him and James Smith will both score! We will need a 400 guy to breakout or a couple! Hopefully those freshman growing pains are gone! The 800 trio will be strong! Whitmarsh and Norris are healthy, and the Jamaican transfer will make for a scary trio. Connor Schulman can establish himself as the top hurdler! I feel like Ryan Martin is poised for a big year! I'm also excited to see the development of our multis! We should also score in high jump and hopefully pole vault can have someone break out!

Indoor related but I'm excited for a DMR! Whitmarsh can run indoors, Cawthra is improved, Casarez can go faster! And we can have a strong squad!

The women's side I think we see a lot of improvement from our sprinters! Not saying the scoring is wide wide open but a lot of top girls have moved on so there will be new names emerge throughout the country l. I hope our sprint relay of Killebrew, Dickson, Hackett, and maybe Campos or Burr or someone else can make it a top 3-5 relay! We're gonna need as many points in 100-200-400 and 4x100 that we can get! I hope Bailey Goggans can be healthy but that's a tough ask! I hope Abadie can improve like she did again! Our jav girls will score, Abigail Martin in the discus an he a threat if her PR improves a little! And I also expect Joniar Thomas to breakout and establish herself as one of the top multis and even improve and score in the open long jump! I'm sad we don't have any 400 hurdlers

Didn't even mention how scary a men's 4x100 can be with Issam Assinga, Ryan Martin, Devantae Mount, and Jordan Anthony while also having Chopane, Teer, Schulman, and a healthy Keanu Jones!

I am also hoping that our Long and Triple Jumpers do well next year. Joniar Thomas, Jade Johnson and Ruth Agadama.

I think Rylee Lydon will do very well especially indoors. Her PBs indoors currently will put her at about 4000 points

Not sure if Lamara would stick around after graduation. I hope she does.

Looking forward to see who our new coach can bring on the women side in the 800m and 1500m

The addition of Coach Ereng already excites me, but then add in what he can bring from a recruiting standpoint and you gotta think that we'll immediately be a podium threat again for the foreseeable future!

https://12thman.com/sports/mens-cross-country/roster

Cross country rosters are out and they were right about the cuts! Hopefully they're still adding some to the roster cause there are some big losses on the men's side! Never have I seen an Aggie cross country team this small! Some new additions on the girls side. Only 23 women and 16 men on the roster! Good news is Mary Grace Rodriguez is coming back, I was afraid she wouldn't! There are still a lot of question marks on the girls side and lots of shoes to fill losing Julia Abell, Grace Plain, Abbey Santoro, and Deirdre Nelson! Hopefully Goddard is healthy so her, Livingston, Rodriguez, Fontenot and Buckley can be the veterans of the group and should be a factor into the scoring! Shewaye Johnson should break in there as well and establish herself as one of our top runners!

But wow I didn't think Madison Brown would have any eligibility in cross country when she transferred but she's on the roster! She comes from D2 Dallas Baptist and will be our top girl potentially! She has PR's in xc of 16:47 in the 5k and 21:05 in the 6k! Which are huge times! Her track times are just as impressive with a 4:27 1500, 9:24 3000, and 16:19 5000! What a pickup!

On the men's side we lost a lot of depth due to cuts like Victor Zuniga and Teddy Radtke. And we lose Gavin Hoffpauir and Francesco Romano which are tough losses! But we return a strong strong trio of Casarez, Chhikara, and Chung! I hope Cawthra can take his xc game up like he has in track! Benn and Jayaraman the hometown boys should be improved as well! I'm not sure of the xc ability of Gajdos but I'm intrigued and we have a talented group of freshman led by Jack Johnston and Carter Gordy.

My way too early predictions for our top 7 are

Women's
Madison Brown
Maddie Livingston
Kennady Fontenot
Mary Grace Rodriguez
Shewaye Johnson
Katelyn Buckley
Gemma Goddard

Men's
Eric Casarez
Johnathan Chung
Chandon Chhikara
Joseph Benn
Cooper Cawthra
Siddharth Jayaraman
Ondrej Gajdos

I believe Radtke graduated/not a cut.

Quote:

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The lone current student-athlete and three-time NCAA Champion high jumper, Lamara Distin, dons the Jamaican flag at the championships. She is joined by recent Texas A&M graduate Charokee Young, who will also represent Jamaica while competing in the women's 400m and 4x400m relay.

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From the A&M release on World Championships.

So do we think Lamara is staying?? Sure she could declare pro later if she wants, but glad there's still hope at least! haha

Asinga is listed as a freshman in Business Administration

https://directory.tamu.edu/people/5befb9a3824857e9a08478a047ab637f/?branch=people&cn=Asinga

Thanks!

A few friends have seen him around campus!