Hosts Texas A&M (Aggies) dominated the A&M-LSU-Texas Tech University Triangular at College Station Saturday, January 25, completing a sweep of the team titles in front of 1,288 fans inside Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
The Aggies opened the meet by sweeping the mile as Hillary Montgomery ran 4mins, 53.81secs for the women’s title and A&M frosh Alex Riba clocked 4:08.07 for the men’s victory.
The domination never eased as A&M totaled 20 victories in the less-than-three-hour meet, with the Aggie men and women claiming 10 wins each. Of the six meet records set by A&M, four were by the men and two by the women. The Aggies were also responsible for nine 1-2 finishes and four first and third places.
World Leaders
Setting a world-leading mark by himself and assisting his relay team in establishing another was Trinidadian Deon Lendore, competing in his first open 400m of the season. Lendore ran a 45.74secs world-lead to break the Triangular meet record of 45.91, which he set a year ago. The junior sprinter also bettered the indoor collegiate dual meet record he established at last year’s meet.
The quarter-miler eclipsed Bahamian Chris Brown’s 45.93 world lead and stadium record four hours earlier in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lendore later returned to run a 45.22secs anchor leg to help the A&M men (Aggies) win and post a meet record time of 3mins, 05.43secs that erased the Aggie mark of 3:05.92 set in 2010. The time also lowered the world leading mark of 3:05.68 that A&M set last week and sits at No. 5 on the Aggie all-time list.
Lendore’s compatriot and Aggie teammate Wayne Davis equaled the meet record of 7.75secs in taking the 60 hurdles with relative ease. He matched the time set by LSU’s (Louisiana State University’s) Barrett Nugent in 2011. Joshua Lamers of LSU finished second in 7.98 with Texas Tech’s Shujaa Benson third in 8.08.
Another Trinidadian, Janeil Bellille, won the women’s 400m with a career best of 53.58 – the fifth fastest time at A&M. Bellille then ran the 400m leg on the Aggie distance medley relay squad, splitting 52.89 as she took A&M from third to first. The Aggies, however, dropped back to third in 12:01.54.
At the end, the Aggie men totaled 135.5 points to better LSU (90.5) and Texas Tech (85). The A&M women amassed 140 points in topping LSU (94) and Texas Tech (80). -Edited by Admin Complete results