Fans, as you may or may not know, the Texas A&M Indoor Track & Field program opened the doors to the new, state-of-the-art Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. Until this year, the Aggies had never had an indoor meet at HOME.

The new facility has garnered rave reviews from the Aggie Athletes & Coaches, opposing Athletes and Coaches, track officials…as well as the large number of fans that have attended the regular season meets so far this season.

There have been 4 meets so far this season (including the Big 12 Championships) and an average attendance of 5,060 fans per meet.

There is one more Indoor meet this season and it is the most important one of the year…for the Aggies and the entire nation! This weekend, March 13 & 14, Texas A&M will host the 2009 NCAA Track & Field Indoor Track Championships.

The Texas A&M Women are ranked #1 in the nation and the Men are #4. Couple their talent with the HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE, the Aggies have a great opportunity to win a pair of National Championships this weekend!

Here’s what 27-time National Championship Head Coach Pat Henry says about the importance of the 12th Man:

“The Aggie crowd is important, and as a team we have only found this out this year. As you know, until this year we had not had home meet in my time as the head coach here at Texas A&M. It’s been very encouraging to our team to see the size and enthusiasm of the crowd at each home meet we’ve had this season in the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

I’ve witnessed indoor competition all around this county, and in fact the world, and I have never heard a facility get louder and more excited than the fans inside Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. The Aggies have done a great job supporting our team this year.

The crowd at the Big 12 Championships made a significant contribution and impact on the competition. I can name a number of instances where I know our athletes heard the Aggies in the stands and responded to their encouragement.

Now we face the most important competition of the year, the NCAA Championships are here in Aggieland. We look forward to seeing as many Aggies as we can get in the building and hearing their support throughout the meet as our athletes compete.”

-Pat Henry, Texas A&M Head Track & Field Coach


Additionally, this is your chance to see the best athletes in the world (many also compete on their respective country’s Olympic Teams).

While ticket sales are very strong, there are some tickets still available. Follow this link for complete coverage of the Championships or to purchase tickets to this prestigious event: AggieAthletics.com

2 Championships in one weekend would be so bad ass...

I have had my tickets since the fall. My daughter who was a top 25 Heptathlete at Sam Houston State and is finishing Med school this month at Baylor in Houston are going to be there to root the Aggies on and also a young man from here in Childress that Long and Triple jumps for tech.

I'm a big-time Gabby Mayo fan.
I live here in the Triangle, NC and wrote a big thread about gabby in 2007 in the sports-other forum... pics in it and all.
Does anyone have the search function and can go back in time to early 2007 or late 2006 and find the thread i did in other sports and link to it on this thread?

On another note, the Aggies have secured a commitment from another Triangle athlete from Gabby's same High Scool. A male hurdler, Davis. I believe he leads the nation as a High School prep and so will be coming to Aggieland in the fall of 2009.

I plan to attend. I have personal special memories about track at Kyle field and want to see how these athletes perform.

Any word on student tickets? Will they let any studnets in for free or do we have to pay the General Admission rate?

RoyIII_Ag08, it will be general admission rate (since it is an NCAA event).

How about posting the Aggies that have qualified and are going to be participating in the meet?? Give us some idea of how many and who to keep an eye on.

Can anyone with stars(search) capabilities look back on this board 'other' in late 2006 early 2007 and find my post about the Aggies having recruited Gabby Mayo. Does search go back that far?
Sure would like to see it linked off of this thread... hint hint!
Thanks and Gig'em!

Several OTHER schools have published/released the names of athletes that they will have competing! Why do we still NOT have that info out???

The aggie men have 2 sprinters, 4x400 relay and 4 jumpers. Gerald Phiri is in the 60m and Justin Oliver is in the 400. There are 4 jumpers in the triple jump lead by Zuheir Sharif, Julian Reid (Long Jump as well), Melvin Echard and Tyron Stewart.

I don't think that the men have enough to win it all but could be in the race for a top 5. Top 3 would be really good.

The women have 5 sprinters, a 4X400 relay and 3 jumpers in the meet. Porscha Lucas will be in the 60 and 200 along with Gabby Mayo. Allison George and Khrystal Carter will join them in the 200 and Jessica Beard will be running in the 400. Yasmin Regis will lead the jumpers in the triple jump along with Vashti Thomas (long jump as well) and Ashika Charan.

The women have been ranked #1 all season but are going to have to have a great performance to win it all. Tennessee has some great mid and long distance runners that could score lots of points. They also have the best DMR in the country this year. These two teams should be the top 2.

It should be a great meet and hopefully the ags can pull it out.

If you want to see all the entries go to trackshark.com and look at the declaration lists.

Should be a fantastic meet. Looking forward to the 5000 on friday and 3000 and mile runs on Saturday. Galen Rupp of Oregon is coming. he may be the fastest distance runner in the world. Disappointed German Fernandez is not coming. The women distance runners should be fantastic as well. Looking forward to watching our runners: Mayo and Lucas especially.

A&M Track and Field - Aggies represented by 18 athletes in NCAA Championships

Texas A&M Track & Field
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 13-14, 2009
College Station, Texas

18 Aggies will compete in NCAA Indoor hosted by Texas A&M

Following declarations by teams earlier this week, the field has been set for the NCAA Indoor Championships being hosted by Texas A&M in its new Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium at McFerrin Athletic Center.

The No. 1 Texas A&M women's team will have a squad of nine athletes competing in six events while the No. 4 Aggie men's team will enter nine athletes for five events. The A&M women had three individuals with automatic qualifying marks in four events while the men have four individuals with automatic qualifying marks in two events, three of those individuals are competing in the triple jump.

Representing the women's team, with the events they will contest in parenthesis, include: Porscha Lucas (60, 200, 4x400), Gabby Mayo (60, 200), Vashti Thomas (long jump, triple jump), Jessica Beard (400, 4x400), Allison George (200, 4x400), Khrystal Carter (200), Yasmine Regis (triple jump), Ashika Charan (triple jump), and Sandy Wooten (4x400). Brittany Machacek will be an alternate for the relay.

Competing in the NCAA men's field for the Aggies are: Gerald Phiri (60), Justin Oliver (400, 4x400), Julian Reid (long jump, triple jump), Zuheir Sharif (triple jump), Melvin Echard (triple jump), Tyron Stewart, Tran Howell (4x4), Bryan Miller (4x4), and Kyle Dykhuizen (4x4). Chris Dykes is an alternate for the relay.

Both programs enjoyed top 10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor meet last season with the women placing seventh and the men tying for 10th place. It was the best finish for the women at the indoor nationals in program history while the men produced its best finish since 1989 and 1990 when A&M placed third both seasons.

Porscha Lucas has automatically qualified for the national meet in the 60 meters and 200 meters. She leads the nation in the 200 with the only sub-23 second time recorded this season. Her 22.94 at the Big 12 Indoor enabled Lucas to defend her title.

Also entering the women's meet with automatic qualifying marks are Jessica Beard (400) and Yasmine Regis (triple jump). Both athletes rank third in the nation with school record marks of 52.35 seconds for Beard and 44 feet, 4 ¼ inches for Regis.

Zuheir Sharif has led the men's collegiate list in the triple jump for a majority of the season and even held the top spot on the U.S. indoor list briefly. He equaled the school record this season with a 53-3 to win during the dual meet with Texas and then claimed sole possession of the A&M record with a 53-11 winning effort at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City. A 53-9 measurement won the Big 12 Indoor title, the second conference title for Sharif after claiming it as a freshman in 2007.

Gerald Phiri produced an automatic qualifying mark in the 60 meters with a school record time of 6.59 seconds when he challenged LSU's Trindon Holliday during the Texas A&M Showdown that featured three Big 12 schools against three SEC schools.

Joining Sharif with automatic marks in the triple jump are Julian Reid and Melvin Echard, who are currently eighth and ninth on the collegiate list with marks of 52-11 ½ and 52-10 ¾. Another Aggie who joined the NCAA triple jump field is Tyron Stewart (52-8 ¾).

Improved times for both Aggie 4 x 400 relays were needed this past weekend during a last chance qualifying meet in Ames, Iowa. The men's 4x4 squad is eighth in the nation with a 3:07.26 while the women's 4x4 is ninth in the nation with a 3:35.93.

Gabby Mayo, Big 12 champion in the 60 and 60 hurdles, is eighth in the nation for both the 60 meters (7.28) and the 200 meters (23.41). Mayo was the high point scorer during the Big 12 Championships, claiming 23 points off her two victories and a sixth-place finish in the 200.

Another dual threat in the NCAA meet for the Aggies is Vashti Thomas, who produced provisional marks in three events - 60 hurdles, long jump and triple jump. She made the field in the triple jump where her 43-7 is tied for seventh and in the long jump where her mark of 20-9 is 18th.

Also among the top 16 with NCAA provisional marks are Allison George (12th - 23.57) and Khrystal Carter (16th - 23.73) in the women's 200, Reid (=12th - 25-6) in the long jump, Justin Oliver (=13th - 46.58) in the 400, and Ashika Charan (15th - 43-0 ¼) in the triple jump.

The women are projected to finish second and will need some excellent performances (or poor performances by Tennessee) to win. They have a chance for the top spot. However, they may end up fighting TT for second place.

I just hope the men can finish in the Top 10. The Top 5 can only be reached by much, much, much better than expected performances by several of the men. Unfortunately, around 10th place is more realistic.

what time does the meet stsrt fri/sat?

Friday – Heptathlon and Pentathlon events begin at 10 am; the other events begin at 4 pm
Saturday – Heptathlon events begin at noon; the field events at 3:30 pm; the running events at 4:55 pm

Can you buy tickets at the indoor track facility?

they still have tickes for sale up there