West First Round ends as Aggie women qualify 12 entries for Eugene
Rolling to the Pacific Northwest.
To conclude the 2025 West First Round at E.B. Cushing Stadium, the pro-Texas A&M crowd watched as nine Aggie women and both relays secured their spots in Eugene on Saturday.
In total, the Maroon & White will have a dozen entries on the women’s side of the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships. This success comes a day after confirming 11 individuals and both relays on the men’s side.
“Taking those kinds of people in there to start the meet, if they are ready to compete at the level it takes to get there, I think they will be,” Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry said. “It’s great to see us go in with that kind of leadership in that position.”
Heptathlete Sofia Yakushina already secured her spot in Eugene by being the nation’s leader in the multi-event with a season-best score of 6,260.
Fellow NCAA leader and triple jumper Winny Bii soared to the top mark of the meet with a jump of 14.00m (45-11.25) as she will vie for an individual title as well.
Still, the most impressive performance of the evening came on the oval in the night’s early races.
In the 4x100m relay, A&M won a thrilling second heat as anchor Jasmine Montgomery burned down the home straight to pass Illinois and then Baylor at the line to put the finishing touches on a 43.12 that also featured Jasmine Harmon, Bria Bullard and Camryn Dickson.
“When I ran it, I wasn’t thinking about nothing,” the junior said. “I was just like, ‘Oh, shoot. We’re not winning.’ So I was like, ‘I got to go. I got to go.’
“As soon as I passed the first girl, I was like, ‘I know I can get the second girl.’”
Later in the evening, the 4x400m relay crew of Kennedy Wade, Dickson, Montgomery and Jaydan Wood put a bow on the weekend’s festivities by winning the final heat with a 3:27.67, which is a season-best by two seconds.
“God has really brought me through all my years being hurt and coming back and just having this redemption,” Montgomery said. “I have to give all praise to God. I feel really blessed and really happy that I’m able to just do this and run.”
Beyond their success on the relay teams, both Montgomery and Dickson qualified as individuals in two other events.
In the 100m, Montgomery came in second in Heat 1, while Dickson finished fourth in Heat 2. The sprinters posted times of 11.02 and 11.17, respectively, to advance.
In the 200m, Montgomery cruised to a Heat 1 win, and Dickson placed third in the next heat as the dynamic duo ran times of 22.26 and 22.69, respectively.
“It’s awesome,” Dickson said. “I had the opportunity to do this last year, and it kind of makes you want to go farther when you get to Oregon. … It makes me just want to go get the trophy, and it shows that we really can at nationals. I just want to score, honestly.”
Other Aggie qualifiers came from the 3,000m steeplechase, 100m hurdles and 400m.
Steeplechase standout and freshman Debora Cherono ran a school-record 9:42.55 to finish second in Heat 1. At the same time, teammate Kennady Fontenot earned a “little q” as one of the next three fastest finishers with a time of 9:58.13.
Hurdler Jaiya Covington was victorious in Heat 3 at 12.87, while Harmon suffered a hard fall at the final obstacle while pushing for Heat 1’s top three.
Along with her spot on the 4x400m squad, Wood finished third in the first heat of the quarter mile with a time of 51.88.
Of A&M’s 18 Saturday entries, only seven failed to advance to the national meet, the biggest upset being discus thrower Abigail Martin’s 24th-place finish.
Still, the Aggies have positioned themselves to possibly play spoiler in Eugene.
“It can help, but it doesn’t determine anything,” Henry said. “This meet comes down to the elites, and then maybe it’ll come down to somebody’s scoring that’s not really an elite athlete but very, very good.
”It’s a little bit of rolling of the dice when you get there, but we got to be ready to run.”
The 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships will begin on June 11.
