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Texas A&M Track and Field
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Aggie track and field adds 19 athletes on National Signing Day
College Station – National signing day in track and field brought Texas A&M 19 signatures Wednesday of recruits joining the Aggie program next season.
The group of athletes signing a National Letter of Intent with Texas A&M included 15 women and four men in the 2010 recruiting class. Within this class 17 of the 19 recruits are from Texas. Event areas the group covers include sprints, jumps, distance, throws and combined events.
“This year we looked at some of the holes we had to fill as a team,” Aggie head coach Pat Henry said. “However, our efforts are to sign great athletes. If they fill a hole, then that’s good. But the main effort is to find a great athlete who will contribute to your group.
“I think on the whole we are pleased with our class. Unlike a head-count sport we only have the percentage of scholarships available through our graduates from the previous year. We didn’t have a lot of money this year, but we still managed to have a good size recruiting class. We’ve signed 19 right now and will probably have a couple more. From a numbers standpoint it’s about normal. The depth we gain in some areas is important on the conference level.”
Headlining the men’s signees is Prezel Hardy (Ellison HS, Killeen, Texas), the 2009 World Youth 100-meter champion and USATF Junior 100-meter champion, who also won the Texas 5A State 100 title in a wind-aided 10.08 seconds, the third-fastest high school time ever under any conditions.
Amid the women’s signees is a collection of State champions as well as athletes who have competed at Junior Olympics and internationally on World Youth teams.
In the throwing events the Aggies signed Ashley Aldredge (Cedar Creek HS, Ruston, Louisiana), who is a two-time Track & Field News All-American in the javelin. In the sprints the Aggies signed Ashley Collier (Dunbar HS, Ft. Worth, Texas) and Blessing Mayungbe (Lamar HS, Houston, Texas), both of whom claimed State 5A silver medalists in their respective events and were members of State champion relays.
“Across the board I think we have a good range of athletes,” noted Henry. “Prezel Hardy, Ashley Collier and Ashley Aldredge along with a couple of others have done very well on the state and national level as well as competing internationally.”
Aldredge, who has won four consecutive Louisiana State 1A javelin titles with her first coming as an eighth grader, produced a best of 158-5 in the javelin which ranked second best among high school throwers in 2009. She finished second at the USATF World Youth Trials this past summer and set a meet record in winning the Young women division at the USATF Junior Olympics.
Collier earned a silver medal in the 200 during the 2008 State 4A meet while contributing to a pair of relay State titles in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200. Collier has career best times of 11.58 in the 100 and 23.49 in the 200, both of which were set while winning USATF Junior Olympics titles.
Mayungbe claimed second in the 400 (54.59) at the State 5A meet and anchored Lamar’s 4 x 400 to a State title. The 4 x 400 crew also won a Texas Relays title in 2009. Mayungbe’s career best of 53.92, set in placing second at USATF Junior Olympics, ranked 17th in the nation during the 2009 season and was third fastest among Texas preps.
Joining Hardy among the men’s class are distance runners Ethan Doherty (Champion HS, Boerne, Texas) and Nathan Parker (Keller Central HS, Ft. Worth, Texas) along with high jumper Tyler Lee (Tomball, Texas).
Doherty won the 2009 State 4A 1,600 title with a career best time of 4:15.10 and finished fourth at the Texas Relays. In cross country he was the fourth runner on a Boerne Champion squad that defended its State 4A team title with Doherty placing 13th overall.
Lee has cleared 6-10 twice in the high jump, placing fifth at the State 5A meet and winning the Region II-5A title. Parker, who qualified for the State 5A cross country meet in 2009 after placing third in the Region I-5A meet, also advanced to the region track and field meet in the 800 and 1,600 meters.
Joining Aldredge in the throws group are Kelly Czumble (Barnegat Township, Barnegat, New Jersey) and Jill Hydrick (Ingleside HS, Aransas Pass, Texas). Czumble placed fourth in the javelin at the South Jersey Championships after winning a sectional title. Hydrick is a discus thrower who claimed silver in the State 3A meet with a career best toss of 143-2.
In jump, vault and combined events the A&M signing class includes Melody Criswell (Flower Mound, Texas), Haley Gooch (The Woodlands, Texas), Emily Grant (Abilene Wylie, Abilene, Texas), Melissa Mays (Harker Heights, Texas), Gabriela Smith (Bishop T.K. Gorman HS, Tyler, Texas) and Jordan Wilson (Forney, Texas).
Mays, with a triple jump best of 39-8 to win Region II-5A, claimed silver in the State 5A Championship with a windy mark of 40-3 while Gooch earned a bronze medal in the same meet with a wind-aided best of 39-3 and recorded a leap of 39-0 as runner-up in the Region II-5A meet.
Grant is a pole vaulter with a personal best of 11-6. She placed third in the 2008 State 3A meet and sixth in the 2009 Texas Relays. Criswell is a district high jump champion who finished fifth at the Texas Relays and also contributed to Flower Mound relay efforts. Smith, an all-around athlete who will join Criswell in combined events at Texas A&M, ran on three sprint relays that placed in the TAPPS 5A State meet.
Distance runners in the signing group include Sophie Blake (Kingwood, Texas), Colbea Harris (Argyle, Texas), Aliese Hyde (Harker Heights, Texas) and McKenze Neal (College Park HS, The Woodlands, Texas).
Blake was a member of Kingwood’s State 5A championship squad in cross country this past fall, finishing as the second runner on the team and 13th overall. On the track, Blake finished third in the 800 and 1,600 at the Region III-5A meet.
Harris claimed the State 3A individual title in cross country in November as she led her team to a runner-up finish. In 2008, Harris placed second at State with her team placing fourth. On the track Harris won the State 3A title in the 3,200 with a personal best of 11:07.59 and claimed silver in the 1,600.
Hyde ran a career best of 2:11.26 to place third in the 800 at the 2008 State 5A Championship and won the 2009 Region II-5A title in the 800 after winning a 400-800 double in district.
Neal was a member of The Woodlands College Park team that placed second in the 2009 State 5A meet. As the third runner on her squad Neal finished 32nd overall. On the track Neal placed fifth in the 3,200 with a personal best of 11:18.06 at the 2008 Region II-5A meet.
