Despite a scare at the end, Kahmari Montgomery ran the third best 400m time in school history to sprint his way back into the NCAA Top 16. | Courtesy of Joshua Mills, Texas A&M Athletics
Junior sprinter Kahmari Montgomery jumped back into the NCAA Top 16 with his performance in the 400m this weekend while senior sprinter Elijah Hall solidified his top 5 position in the indoor men’s 200m.
After not racing at the Houston Invitational on Jan. 27, Montgomery came back and raced at the Charlie Thomas Invitational Saturday and brought himself into the nation’s top 10. In winning the men’s 400m, Montgomery ran the third-best time in program history, 46.28s.
Two weeks ago, Montgomery ran the fourth-best time in school history, 46.83s. This marks consecutive races where he has ran top 5 times in school history. His most recent time is currently No. 10 in the nation, moving him up 12 spots from last week.
Hall has yet to run in the men’s 60m since the home opener at the Leonard Hilton Invitational, where he ran 6.60s. At that point it was the leading time in the world. One month later it is still No. 3 in the NCAA.
But Hall has been focusing on the 200m sprints the last few meets. His most recent race at the Charlie Thomas Invitational did not improve his national standings. He is still No. 4 in the country, but his time of 20.51s was a meet record, a new personal best and a new school record.
This marks the second year where Hall has broken the school indoor 200m record.
There was no movement in the men’s 4x400m relay from last week. The team of juniors Amere Lattin and Mario Burke, freshman Quivell Jordan and Montgomery still have the No. 5 time in the nation at 3 minutes, 7.01s.
Lattin is the sole Cougar to have fallen out of the NCAA Top 16. After running a 7.80s time in the men’s 60m hurdles last week, Lattin was rested at College Station after running in every meet so far.
His time had been the No. 16 time in the country and is now No. 17, giving Lattin more than a fair chance to jump his way back onto the national charts.
No women have made it into the NCAA Top 16. Sophomore Samiyah Samuels and senior Tonye’cia Burks have the best shot of qualifying. They compete in the long jump and triple jump respectively.
Samuels had a personal best 6.15m jump in College Station this weekend. That moved her up to No. 19 in the country. Burks has not improved her season-opening mark of 12.92m in the triple jump, but her mark is still No. 22. If both remain healthy, both have the ability and time to improve on their jumps.
In the USTFCCCA team rankings, the women still remain unranked. However, the men have moved up from No. 15 to No. 13.
