The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
03.27.2015 | Texas Relays
2015 Texas Relays Headquarters
Kara Winger (Asics) – winner women's Javelin University/College Section A
On winning the event: It feels really good. Last year I was throwing with a big ACL knee brace on and this is my first competition without it since London 2012. I'm really excited to have done what I did today. It didn't start out great but I'm going to build on this.
Texas sophomore Fabian Dohmann – winner men's javelin university/college
On winning at home: It's always great to win, but this is the opening of the season for me and it's a really good opening for me. It's not a PR but throwing over 70 meters for me is a great start.
On being able to start the season at home: You always can take advantage of that. I have my team supporting me and it's not a coincidence that I threw my best with them clapping.
Florida senior Cierra Brewer - winner women's triple jump university/college
On what it means to be here at Texas Relays: I'm really excited. This is my first meet outdoors. Last year I missed out on Texas relays because of an injury so I'm really glad to be here. The environment is really good, it's a really great outdoor meet.
On if there was anything she adjusted to help her win today: Adjusting to the wind, because it's really windy out here in comparison to Florida. So just getting my mind back to adjusting to win and transitioning from indoor to outdoor.
LSU senior Rodney Brown - winner discus men's university/college
On what it means to be here at Texas Relays: This is my first win. This is one of my favorite meets because I'm actually from Texas. My family and friends get to come watch and I get to do what I love to do in front of them.
On winning his senior year: It means a lot. It's a historic meet. Like I said, there is a lot of family here and to finally get my mark this year is pretty nice.
On if he thinks this will help him moving forward with outdoors: It a little better than my opener, so we are making steps. I've got a few more meets to get the better marks, but I'm in a good place right now.
Westlake High School senior Nicole Summersett – winner pole vault girl's high school
On winning the Texas Relays: It's incredible. I've watched Desi [Freier], I'm watched my best friends win here. I placed for the first time last year so I just came in here and knew that anything can happen. It's the best feeling in the world to actually be with all these amazing athletes.
On her goals moving forward: My main goal is to win state. Ever since I was a freshman, that's been my goal. Definitely I want to make it to state first, obviously, and just to have a great last season and leave my mark out there.
Wichita Falls Hirschi High School senior Charles Brown – winner high jump boy's high school
On winning his first time at the Texas Relays: It feels good, real good. Austin is an electrifying city. It's a crazy atmosphere here.
On having a big crowd behind supporting him: It feels real good. I'm not even at home and everybody's cheering for me.
On if it's motivating to win against great competition: It really does. At any track meet you go to, you won't see as much talent as you would here. So competing against the best of the best, it's awesome and a blessing.
Arkansas senior Sparkle McKnight - anchor of winning 1600m women's Spring Medley Relay Invitational
On how it feels to win this event in front of this crowd: I believe this is my first year here ever winning the SMR at Texas Relays. It is a good feeling to come out here. This is our first outdoor meet to get out there and do the 800, so I feel pretty good.
On the preparation for this event: At the nationals, we took maybe a couple of days off and we just started back training. We didn't work on any handoffs, we just went out here and trained our hardest and ended up coming out with the 1st place.
John Cooper High School senior Pedro Nasta - winner 1600m boy's high school
On how it feels to run a PR at the Texas Relays: It's a good sign. I'm coming here next year so it's awesome. The atmosphere and the people here are just awesome.
On the final kick to win: We came around the final 200 and came through strong. It was just a battle of wills the last 100 meters. I got lucky and had more.
SB Smithson Valley High School senior Devin Clark - winner 1600m girl's high school
On final kick to win: When I got into it, I felt really comfortable. I waited until I felt really comfortable when I needed to go and that's when I figured I needed to go. I'm glad I went by feel today. Usually I do what my coach tells me to do, and she said to just go by feel. I feel really good about it and feel like I've really matured as a runner.
On her time: I'm really happy about it. My PR is a 4:46, so it was really close. To do it this early in the season gives me a lot of confidence. I'm really excited for the rest of the season.
Creekview High School senior Sami Gonzalez - winner 300m hurdles girl's high school
On what its like to win at Texas Relays: It's really exciting, to able to win the first 300 hurdle race here. I knew I was going to be racing against a lot of really good girls and I'm just really thankful to get the opportunity to run here.
On the atmosphere: I think its fun being able to run in front of a crowd, kind of here them. The atmosphere is just really energetic and its helps bring my energy up.
On winning Texas Relays her senior year: It's exciting, I really wanted to get the win and just run well.
Canyon High School junior Norman Grimes - winner 300m hurdles boy's high school
On winning Texas Relays: It feels good, I PRed and won the 300 hurdles the first time they have them here so I am pretty excited.
On the atmosphere: No, I have been down to Austin a couple of times, last year for state and Texas Relays. But it's definitely the warmest weather I've had since I'm from Canyon.
On his first relays win: They didn't have 300's last year and I didn't qualify, I didn't make it to finals in the 110's.
On only being a junior: Yeah, it definitely feels really good to have a good win and know that I am only a junior and maybe get a chance to go after that Texas Relays record or the state record or even the national record if I keep going at this pace. It's definitely very motivating.
Baylor sophomore Maggie Montory - anchor of winning distance medley relay women's university/college
On the performance: Our 800 leg, Olicia, she wasn't feeling too well, so we had our alternate JP run so we were like okay, that might not be as much of a cushion, but JP did what she needed to do. We weren't handing off in first or close to first but I knew I needed to run smart, I went out a little quick and it stung me the last 100, you could tell. But it was fun, I enjoyed it, and I think we are happy to come away with a victory again.
On her relays experience: I've competed in high school and then we competed last year, we won the 4x8 and DMR last year and we were hoping to double it this year.
On winning here: It's exciting, it kind of reminds me of high school, which is a lot of fun, which is like coming here from Arkansas, Arkansas, there is nothing like this besides U of A, but like this is big, it gets everybody riled up. Everybody here is into it and it gets the emotions running, it's a great atmosphere to run in.
Texas A&M senior Isaac Spencer - anchor of winning distance medley relay men's university/college
On winning in senior year: It feels good. Since I've come here the last four year, I've never won a race or relay. So to win in senior year is really good.
On the atmosphere: For us, it's almost like a home meet for us because we're only an hour and a half away. We don't really have a home meet, so a lot of our family and friends come here to watch us. It's awesome to have an atmosphere like this.
Kansas senior Michael Stigler - winner 400m hurdles men's university/college
On his relay's history: No, this is my third win, third consecutive win, '13, '14, and now '15. It feels great especially doing it here, because I'm from Texas so I know this track very well. It's a great facility, great fans and just to do it three years in a row it's a blessing because its hard, its definitely hard. Especially considering the field, this year is stacked and just to be able to pull off a win today here in front of these fans is just phenomenal.
On the Texas Relays: Oh I love the relays, I have been coming here since I was in high school, so this meet is one of the best meets in the country, outside of nationals. This is where you want to be, people here love track and its just a great environment just to come out here and see people compete and people who love track, you heard that in the background, fans are crazy here and its great to run in front of everybody here.
On running a PR: Yes that is a PR. My PR before that was 49.19, so that was a pretty huge PR and it was a meet record I believe too, so that was great.
China Springs High School sophomore Riley Richards - winner pole vault boy's high school
On winning the Texas Relays: It feels pretty good, this was my last year to come here in high school, so it feels pretty great to win it. It's awesome. I love all of it.
Frisco Centennial High School junior William Petersson - winner javelin boy's high school
On winning by seven centimeters: That came out of nowhere. I beat my PR by 23 centimeters. I feel confident.
On the atmosphere: The crowd hyped me up to throw a lot farther. It was a lot better than high school meets.
Arkansas senior Sparkle McKnight winner - Women's 400m Hurdles
On her performance: Oh no, it's not a PR. My PR is 55.70. This is my fourth time. This is my first win. I mean it feels great, it feels great, I have been working hard so it feels great.
On the atmosphere: I mean I always love coming to Texas Relays, it's a fun meet and we just come out here to have fun.
BYU sophomore Shaquille Walker - anchor of winning 1600m Sprint Medley Invitational men's university/college
On what it feels like get a new school record: That was incredible. We didn't know exactly what we were capable of, we just wanted to be competitive. We really came together. Our goal was to hit 3:17, and we did 3:14 with a new school record on the way. We didn't even know it was even within reach. That's exciting, it was a good and fun race
Bridge City High School senior Alexus Henry winner - winner high jump girl's high school
on her performance: It feels really good to get this win because last year I came here and got third so I had my eye on the goal this year so it feels good.
Cy Springs High School junior Samiyah Samuels - winner long jump girl's high school
On her performance: This will be my third year going, this is actually my first win. It feels amazing, I feel like I have put in a lot of work and I am really proud of myself and my team as well.
On how this sets up the rest of the season: It is, it really is. This year I am going for making the junior world team so this is a start and going toward that 21 feet so I am looking forward to the rest of my year.
On the atmosphere: It's amazing. My supporters motivate me and everything I do, so its amazing having my teammates here and friends and family, it really encourages me to do really well and its very exciting.
Splendora High School senior Jay Bradford - winner long jumb boy's high school
On winning in back-to-back years: It feels to go back-to-back in the long jump. The feeling is indescribable.
On what helped him win: My coaches and friends over there pushed me to be the best I could do and I did it.
On the Texas Relays' atmosphere: I love it. Everyone gets into it and it gets loud.
Flower Mound Marcus High School junior Maddy Reed - anchor of winning Distance Medley Relay girl's high school
On mindset of anchoring: Just to relax and keep calm and just do my thing. It's hard to be by myself but I just had to remind myself to relax the whole time.
On the Texas Relays: It's awesome because we won last year. We came back for a double title. We wanted to beat our record from last year. It's always a lot of fun.
The Woodlands High School junior Matthew McClellan - anchor of winning distance medley relay boy's high school
On the race: I felt so bad the whole race. I ran 4:22 a week ago, I thought I was going to go 4:35 and I was in like 6th or 7th and then with like 500 to go I was like I have to go I can't let my team down and with 300 to go I was in fourth and he was like 20 meters ahead and I was like I have to catch him, I got to do it.
On his experience: This is my first time. It feels pretty amazing. We were hoping to come away with a win, that's what we came here to do. We've been doing lots of workouts; we've had several meets rained out so we really wanted to get a nice, solid meet at a great venue.
