EUGENE, Oregon – The Oregon Ducks swept the men’s and women’s titles at the Pepsi Team Invitational they hosted in front of 5,402 supportive fans at Hayward Field on Saturday while the Aggie men finished runner-up and the A&M women placed third.
In the men’s team scoring it was No. 16 Oregon claiming the victory with 204 points while No. 6 Texas A&M tallied 190 points for second place. Washington edged out UCLA for third place by a four-point margin, 138-134.
The No. 1 Oregon women totaled 221.5 points with Washington scoring 157 for second place. The Aggies finished third with 149.5 points while UCLA was fourth with 135.
Amid a dozen victories for A&M two Aggies – Donique’ Flemings and Prezel Hardy, Jr. – had double wins on the day while another pair of school records were toppled by Henry Lelei and Natosha Rogers.
Flemings won the 100 hurdles in a windy 13.13 and then claimed the 400 hurdles with a stellar career best of 57.76, which ranks No. 4 all-time at Texas A&M.
Hardy, who anchored the Aggie 4 x 100 to a 39.40 win, swept the sprint double with times of 10.32 and 20.60. His 200-meter time set a meet record in bettering a 20.74 set in 2008 while the 100 mark just missed the three-way tie at 10.30 with Gerald Phiri (A&M, 2010), Augustin Olobia (Washington St., 1991) and Slip Watkins (LSU, 1988).
Lelei ran his first 3,000-meter steeplechase in an Aggie uniform and cruised to a winning time of 8:45.80 to better the school record of 8:47.78 set by Juan DeBastos in 2001 at the Cardinal Invitational in Stanford, California. Henry lowered his previous personal best of 8:50.17 and is currently the second fastest collegian for the 2012 season.
Also producing career best times in the steeplechase race were Stephen Curry (9:01.55) and Isaac Spencer (9:06.10) as they placed second and fourth for A&M. Curry moves to No. 7 on the Aggie all-time list while Spencer is now at No. 10.
In setting her ninth school record this season Rogers led a majority of the 5,000-meter race before Oregon’s Alex Kosinski sprinted away for the win in the final stages. Kosinski broke the meet record of 15:54.13 set in 1997 with a 15:36.90 while Rogers placed second in 15:45.80, also bettering the previous meet record held by Arizona’s Amy Skierez.
Rogers bettered the A&M school record of 15:52.30 set by Melissa Gulli during the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento.
Other winning efforts on the day for the Aggies included Jonathan Turner in the long jump (24-1.75w), the women’s 4 x 100 (43.61), Ricky Babineaux in the 400 (47.20), LaKeidra Stewart in the 100 (11.58 PR), Gregory Coleman in the 400 hurdles (52.16) and Brea Garrett in the shot put (49-1.75).
