Starts this Friday to Sunday

Coach Henry statement on Mylik and Robert Grant from the release. Not sure what is the question mark on Mylik and Robert because he says two or three injuries as well as two or three people are bit of question mark.

Quote:

---

Henry noted: "We have two or three injuries as well as two or three people who are question marks going into the meet. John can throw and is ready to go, but Bobby and Mylik are a bit of a question mark right now."

Robert Grant, a 400m hurdler who finished second in 2016 and third in 2017, and Mylik Kerley, fifth in the 400m a year ago and third at the NCAA Indoor, haven't been able to compete in their respective individual events during the outdoor season. Kerley managed to run relays at three different outdoor meets while Grant has been sidelined during the whole outdoor campaign.

---

Also John is set to compete in his first Javelin competition this season

Quote:

---

One defending champion for the Aggies, three-time SEC javelin winner and 2018 NCAA champion John Kyriazis, will be competing for the first time this season. Another victory for Kyriazis would make him the first four-time men's champion in the SEC javelin.

"I haven't thrown yet this season due to an injury with my groin," explained Kryiazis, who broke the conference meet record a year ago. "I've been waiting to get into competition mode. I'll check out how my groin feels and hopefully I'll be healthy at the end of the meet."

---

I still think we have a good chance of contending for the championship

If Grant does not compete this outdoor season, does he get a chance at a senior outdoor season next year, or did his transfer from Miami to A&M wipe out that chance? Is it five years to play four like football?

SEC outdoor track and field championship projected score for the men based ranking the top 8 in each event. It does not take into account whether people are double or not in events since the heat sheet is not out yet.
John Kyriazis, Mylik Kerley and Robert Grant didn't score in the projection since they have not competed as yet. If they all compete could make the championship interesting

Men Total score
Texas A&M 102
Arkansas 102
Alabama 106.5
Florida 104
Georgia 75.5
Ole Miss 55.5
LSU 43.5
South Carolina 42
Tennessee 54
Auburn 32.5
Kentucky 62
Missouri 2.5
Miss State 33

Similar projection for the women. Kentucky score might be inflated because Sydney McClaughlin is ranked top 5 in 100m, 200m, 400m and 400mH. I don't think she will run in 4 individual events

Women Total
Texas A&M 97
Arkansas 91
LSU 97
Kentucky 91
Georgia 82
Florida 74
Alabama 38
Ole Miss 58
Missouri 56.33
Auburn 34.33
South Carolina 21.83
Tennessee 45.5
Miss State 24
Vanderbilt 10

Heat sheet for the championship is out.

https://utsports.com/documents/2018/5/10/2018_SEC_Heat_Sheets.pdf

No Robert Grant in the Hurdles however he is listed on the 4x400m relay.
Mylik Kerley is listed in the 400m
No Sam Hardin in the Javelin. He is ranked 3rd in the SEC. John is listed.
No Danyel White
No Jaevin Reed
Brenessa Thompson only running 100m and not 200m
No Audrey Malone in the Javelin

Sydney McLaughlin only running the 400m H and relays

Top two seeds in the Heptathlon Taliyah Brooks of Arkansas and Louisa Gravogel of Georgia not listed to compete

In a perfect world everyone would be healthy and compete at their best. Things for this particular meet don't look good on the men's side. If Kerley, Grant and Kyriazis are not at their best things do not look good for the Ags! If it were conceivable that all three could get a redshirt year (may be difficult for Kerley to be granted this) the team would be a pretty solid lock for at least an outdoor national title. Next year would be a banner year...new outdoor facility and incredible talent both returning and coming in!

Kerley is not eligible for redshirt as he competed in second half of the outdoor season. I believe the three meets he ran in would also preclude this. I believe the others would potentially be able to redshirt though not as certain on Grant as I don't know all the particulars with him.

Long odds but it is also an opportunity for some athletes to step up and score points in unexpected places. Injuries happen and while I hate for seniors to have their season truncated in that way, here's hoping all can heal and continue to improve in whatever endeavors they attempt.

Go out and compete Aggies!

Live Stats

Competition starts at 10 CST with the Women's Hammer. Followed by the multis around noon and prelims around 2.

Robert Grant announces via twitter that while he is in Knoxville to cheer on team, he was injured during indoors and will redshirt this outdoor season.

I heard on tv last night that each team can enter up to 30 competitors for both the men's and women's meets. I was wondering how that worked.

Judging by the heat sheets, they're all in the 5k. (I'm joking; sort of) Sheesh, 67 runners in the womens' race and 64 in the mens'. I know the officials can put multiples in lanes, but that just seems like too many. What percentage will scratch?

Too bad about Robert Grant, but I am glad he will get to redshirt.

Kyriazis threw 80.33m on his 1st throw.

MSU tossed an 82.67 on 3rd throw to take lrad.

Glad that Grant is choosing to redshirt. Probably for the best.

Really rough day on the men's side. Needed to get more than one back in the 400 hurdles, 800 and javelin. Stinks to have the NCAA and three-time defending SEC champ lose a javelin competition too but it is what it is: the biggest bright spot of the day for the men. Alabama went 1-2-3 in the 10K to rack up 24 points. That is not good.

On the bright side, the multis are all three crushing it, Tyra Gittens in particular. She went from almost no heighting in the Hep HJ to jumping over 6-1. She is a real talent. The ladies look to be in line for a 1-2 finish in the Hep. Nice to see Karis Jochen with her best SEC finish after sitting out last season too.

Coaches enter all their distance athletes in this event (and the 3000m indoors typically) as it the last individual event.

A bit of a just incase type thing. I recall having to lace em up for the 4th time in 24 hours indoors to pace a guy in the 3000m as he'd missed the fast heat by one spot. It sucked!!

Gittens(6074) and Burns(5743) finish 1 and 2 in the women's heptathlon. At the moment, that should put them 1 and 12 on the heptathlon rankings.

He's having a great outdoor season isn't he?!

One more day-keep it rolling Aggies!

Aggie men very much in this. Most of the points come in the field tomorrow. Pole vault is obviously huge but should be relatively safe or as safe as pole vault can be. Triki needs to win TJ and we need points from Oladipo in discus and Cragin in high jump. Relays will also be huge as we have few individual qualifiers.

I actually think the women might have a better shot than the men. Lots of field event points out there for the ladies (HJ, TJ, Discus, PV), both relays should be solid and the 800 has the potential to be big.

Can't say enough about Raymond Gonzales. That came out of nowhere. Props to Bryce Deadmon for stepping up in the 400 too.

This is probably the first time in many many years that women does not have a finalist in either 100m, 200m, 400m, 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles at a conference championship. Yet we are still in with a good chance of winning or even placing top three this year. This speaks volumes to the development that has taken place over the years in mid distance, distance and field events. Kudos to all the coaches.

Also to have so many of our top athletes being injured Danyel White, Jaevin Reed, Audrey Malone, Diamond Spaulding, Brenessa Thompson (???) on the women side and Mylik Kerley, Sam Hardin, Robert Grant and John Kyriazis on the men side almost all at the same time is almost unbelievable. Yet we have found a way to continue to compete and be competitive at this meet is really tremendous.
One could only imagine if all these athletes were fit and on the team at this championship. I think we could have definitely won both titles.

Interesting to see who lines up today in the women 4x100 relay for us. Diamond Spaulding scratched from her individual race and I am not sure what is going with Brenessa Thompson. She only entered the 100m and judging from her time (11.70) in the 100m prelims she may not be fully fit.

No points for the women in the discus - Brown fouled on all 3 attempts.

That is coaching and having athletes that care about the effort of their team, whether able to compete or cheering from the sidelines. They have had some challenges on several levels this year and still have had some amazing successes. I am amazed that more people don't follow them (Although I'd like to keep my spot for season tix!)- - great group of young people.

I have not been able to keep up with Aggie T&F teams lately.

Heading into the final day, what are the final point predictions based on best performances so far?

The day has started very rough for the Aggie women.
Top seed Serena Brown had three fouls and doesn't score. Once she made a legal throw I am sure she would have made the finals. The winner threw 55+ to win. She could have easily won this event.
The fourth seed in the Triple Jumps Lajarvia Brown has two fouls and a mark of 12.97m and does not make the finals. The women lose already lose 15 possible points.

On the men side 18 points as expected in the Pole Vault. Audie Wyatt and Jacob Wooten finished 1-2

20 person field in Men's 1500m is a genuine joke. Really hurt our chances as well. I know meant we had an extra person in final but totally changed the dynamic

Hopefully McLaughlin sticks around in college t&f. Amazing talent

Infinite Tucker just broke his 400 Hurdle PR by over a second and a half to take 2nd with a 49.46 excellent run. Unexpected.

Triki won the TJ

Really brave performance from these squads. Makes you wonder what could have been!

Tennessee's 7,500-seat stadium is spacious and impressive. I especially like the color changes in their new running surface that marks the baton exchanges areas in the 4x400. That should make it much easier for the runners. We need to have ours like that.