With the new facilities and recruits, it looks like this year could boast another men's BIG XII title like in 2001. I have talked to the guys on the team and they feel that they have a good shot at it...just have to stay healthy and handle their business during practice.

Gig 'em

I am looking forward to seeing the women...like Kristen Swan....High Jumper...she goes to my church...great girl and tall

Men's track at ATM is one of the most underrated sports team....cannot wait !

Not to be a *****, but the track team most likely won't win the indoor.

I'm pretty sure that the men's only highly ranked runner is Chris Pinnock. Trackwire's DD has only one A&M runner ranked in all men's events and other Big XII schools have quite a few each.

I'm not going to go and analyze the whole conference, but I'd be willing to bet either Texas or Nebraska wins it.

It would have been great if A&M could have landed Kelly Willie a year ago...

By the way, here are the current men's rankings:

quote:

---

Rank. Team Score
1 LSU 62
2 Arkansas 57
3 Stanford 32
4 Florida 27
5 Tennessee 26
6 South Carolina 24
Mississippi State 24
8 TCU 22
9 Villanova 18
Auburn 18
11 Alabama 16
Michigan 16
13 Purdue 15
USC 15
15 UCLA 14
16 Kentucky 12
17 SMU 10
Indiana 10
Washington 10
Nebraska 10
Manhattan 10
Georgia 10
23 Mississippi 9
Ohio State 9
Wisconsin 9

---

Aggietom:

FYI, the trackwire rankings that you have been looking at are based on a national scale, and trackwire ONLY looks at "individual" performers and ranks them nationally. If you looked at "Team Power Rankings" which is much more important in terms of winning a BIG XII Conference title, it would give you a better idea of who is favored to win the conference.

I would post the team power rankings, but the website has not updated and therefore it would not be accurate.

A&M will finish higher than t.u. in the indoor season this year, but my money is on Nebraska to win the indoor conference title.

Yes....To win the Big XII takes a deep team. A National Title takes only a few World Class Athletes. In fact. Many times the National Champion may not finish in the top half of a Conference.

I completely understand the concept behind the Trackwire rankings and how you only need a handful of national elite class athletes to win the national title while you need a deep team to win the conference.

I still think we won't win it, though. While we are pretty good and could win it based on consistency throughout the events, I don't see A&M track as a national powerhouse right now...Especially in the indoor events. I think we'll do much better in the outdoor season when certain events are added to the scoring mix.

We really need work in the relay department. It's been awhile since A&M has been powerful in the 4x100 and even longer in the 4x400.

Distance crew seems to be on the way up since Hartman took over. Their recruiting has been great and the coaching seems to be pretty sound.

What happened to Melisssa McMaster? She is a freshman javelin thrower but she is no longer on the roster.

They go away.

Is the new track roster out for the women? It wasn't up as of yesterday. It kept saying "Coming soon".

If they redshirt, do they keep them up?

whoop!

The BEST College Football DRAFT PREVIEW..http://www.trigboy.com

Melissa McMaster is on the roster and was never off the roster. You haven't heard anything about her because she throws the javelin, and they don't do that indoors.

The javelin will be one of the strongest events for both the men's and women's squads.

For the men, you have 2001 Big 12 Champ Luke Marrs, 2002 U.S. Junior Champion Jarrad Matthews, 2001 NCAA qualifier Chris Sitka (transfer from Sam Houston that redshirted in 2002), redshirt freshman Anthony Alfier (former walkon baseball player who threw over 205 last year while redshirting)and John Bloom (also over 200)

On the women's side, you have Katy Doyle (4th at 2000 Oly Trials with 179-5), who is returning from elbow problems that kept her out of action for the last two seasons. She had "Tommy John" surgery on her elbow performed by Dr. Frank Jobe. Rachel Walker is a freshman with a PR of 160-plus. Kendra Reimer is back after missing 2002 with a foot problem and she has a 154 PR.

The men's team is back in the Trackwire top 25 this week, based on Chris Pinnock's projected 10 points at the NCAA Indoor.

I think Pinnock's points are solid, and I also expect several others to qualify for indoor nationals as the season progresses. Our coaches do a great job of peaking their athletes for the big meets.

I think Brandon Evans can qualify in any or all of three events -- 60, 200 or triple jump. Ronny Jimenez could get into the shot put. Freshman Fabrice Lapierre is a possibility in the long jump, depending on how fast he adjusts to college track (enrolled in January). And I think Andrew Gamble is ready to jump far in the triple jump. Maybe even the DMR, which won the conference last year.

Trackboy,
You forgot to mention Jarrad's brother. Jason Matthews also throws in the 200+ range and didn't he get 3rd or 4th at the 2001 Conference meet.?

I didn't forget Jason. As I understand it, he had elbow (or some sort of arm surgery) and will not be throwing anything this spring (so no decathlon either). He is, however, a 23-foot long jumper which I think will get him to the NCAA regional meet.

It also appears Jarrad may have a chance to make Indoor Nationals in the Pole Vault. I see he has cleared over 17' this year and provisional is around 17'-4", I think. Living in Washington I haven't been able to see any of them compete lately but when I talked to Jarrad in December he seemed pretty determined to have a breakout year.

nice to see the new comers on the mens team coming along...congrats to fabrice lapierre. He leaped out to an NCAA provisional qualifier this weekend!

gig 'em

Judging from the results from ISU (2/15), it appears that the Aggies are peaking at the right time.

Gamble had a big mark in the triple jump, Lapierre, A. Smith and Sheppard posted solid marks in the long jump, Pinnock and also Peschel are hurdling well. Jimenez and Ralston are both around 60-feet in the shot and Matthews and Walters are flirting with 17 feet in the vault.

If the Aggies can get B. Evans healthy, I think they might be able to make a run at Nebraska in two weeks.

Ya'll probably already know this, but here is the article on the front page of Texags about our women's high jump signee for next year:

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=512&xlc=950827

The Ags 2001 Big XII Championship team had a Freshman who won the 200..what ever happened to him?

[This message has been edited by TxAg (edited 2/17/2003 8:45p).]

The 2001 Big 12 Champion in the 200 (and as anchor of the Champion 4x1) was Adam Wooten. He transferred to Sam Houston State.

Any word on whether or not the Mills boy will return. He was fast becoming an excellent hurdler when he had to leave school to attend to some personal business. Right after he left Coach Nelson said he would probably return but I haven't heard anything since.

Wooten was bad ass.

According to the people search on www.tamu.edu, Mills is enrolled at Texas A&M. He is not on the track team however.

Predictions on the Men's BIG XII Indoor meet?

I say Nebraska takes the title followed by:

A&M
t.u.
Baylor
OU

I'll say Nebraska, Texas, and then us.

Outdoor I think we win the whole damn thing.

Anyone think Juan de Bastos will make outdoor nationals in the steeple?

The steeple is always such a deep event. I have seen Debastos run before and he looked great, but I am not sure if he has it in him to compete with the best of the best nationally...

I am glad that indoor is over...that finish was ugly on both sides. Maybe we can regroup and make a run for the Outdoor title

A&M is an outdoor program...I know that sounds odd, but we just seem to always stack up much better outdoor.

I guess b/c you have discuss and javelin outdoors...as well as the steeple

Didn't look like the track team opened the outdoor season against much competition...hope the schedule some more talent for the next meet

The field at the CS Relays was very strong in spots, mostly in the field events. The jav, discus, pole vault were very talented and deep.

It was a solid first outdoor meet of the season for the Aggies.

It was good to see all those field event guys competing in their specialties, instead of the indoor weight throw.

Penn Relays are this weekend!