Tyra Gittens made a huge contribution to Texas A&M University’s bid for the women’s team title at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships in Arkansas, USA.

Gittens earned 26 points on Thursday and Friday. She opened her account with a golden performance in the pentathlon , totalling 4,746 points for a new Trinidad and Tobago record. The score was also a new Central American and Caribbean (CAC) standard and an American collegiate record.

During the pentathlon, Gittens equalled the T&T high jump record with a 1.93 metres clearance. She went on to claim individual high jump gold, going over the bar at 1.90. And in the long jump, the 22-year-old athlete bagged bronze with a 6.68m leap- a new T&T indoor standard.

Gittens’ Texas A&M teammates chipped in with 31 points on Saturday for a grand total of 57. University of Arkansas, however, accumulated 68 points, and Texas A&M had to settle for second spot in the women’s team race.

Gittens was one of two female T&T athletes who saw action at the three-day meet. The other one, University of Alabama student Cherisse Murray finished 13th in the shot put with a 16.12m throw. Rae-Anne Serville was a reserve on the University of Southern California (USC) 4×400 metres team. Her teammates combined for silver in the event in three minutes, 27.91 seconds.

USC earned fourth spot in the women’s team competition with 35 points, finishing behind Arkansas, Texas A&M and Louisiana State University (LSU). The LSU women totalled 39. Alabama, meanwhile, finished 16th with 13 points.

Two male T&T athletes were on show at the NCAA Indoor Champs. On Saturday, Dwight St Hillaire finished eighth in the 400m finals in 45.89 seconds. He then anchored University of Kentucky to silver in the 4x400m relay in 3:03.61. Joshua Jacob St Clair was part of the University of Alabama team that finished ninth overall in 3:08.25.

Alabama secured seventh spot in the men’s team competition with 22 points, while Kentucky finished 14th with 12. University of Oregon accumulated 79 points to win the men’s team title, ahead of LSU (56) and University of Georgia (35).