Texas A&M has several qualifiers on first day of SEC Indoor Championships

The first day of the SEC Indoor Championships saw the Aggie men’s and women’s track teams turn in qualifying performances across the board at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. Both teams had several qualifiers, but have a ways to go to climb back into contention.

Both teams qualified the most runners in the 800m dashes. On the men’s side, Devin Dixon (1:47.97) qualified in first place, while his teammate Efrain Hernandez (1:50.82) qualified in seventh place. For the women, Sammy Watson (2:07.59) and Jean Jenkins (2:09.22) qualified for the finals in second and fifth place, while Jazmine Fray (2:09.99) rounded out the qualifiers in eighth place.

“From an advancement standpoint, I’m really pleased with the men,” head coach Pat Henry said. “The ladies, I’m pleased with our 200-meter people.”

The men also got qualifying efforts from Robert Grant (45.84) and Mylik Kerley (45.88) in the men’s 400m dash prelims — placing third and fourth.

For the mile heats, Alex Riba (4:07.90) and Taylor Clayton (4:08.28) qualified on the men’s side in sixth and seventh place.  

On the women’s and men’s 200m dash, Brenessa Thompson and Diamond Spaulding qualified in seventh and eighth place, respectively.

On the jumps, Will Williams took first place in the men’s long jump final in a seasonal best of 7.99m (26-2 ¾). Garrett Cragin finished in fifth place at 2.18m on the men’s high jump. Additionally, Tyra Gittens grabbed second place with a long jump of 6.19m in the finals.

Henry said he was proud of how well Williams performed on the long jump and grabbed crucial points.

“Will Williams wins the long jump at 26-2 — season’s best and personal best,” Henry said. “He beat some great long jumpers here today and wins it. That 10 points is a big 10 points.”

For the heptathlon, Nathan Hite performed well — finishing in second place with 3,168 points and in pentathlon Gittens (4,121) grabbed fifth place and her teammate Shiana Burns (4,085) took sixth place.

At the conclusion of the first day, the men are in sixth place with 13.5 total team points, while the women are in eighth place with 10 team points. The defending SEC Champion Arkansas Razorbacks leads on the men’s side with 41 points and Florida is in first on the women’s side with 30.5 points.

“I’m more pleased on the men’s side than I am on the ladies’ side,” Henry added.

The final day will kick off at 5 p.m. Sunday with the field events followed by the 60m hurdle finals. The meet will wrap up with 13 men’s finals and 12 women’s finals events.