The No. 1 women’s and No. 1 men’s track and field teams head to College Station this Saturday for a dual meet with longtime rival Texas A&M.

A dual meet is a track meet with only two teams competing against each other. This makes the scoring slightly different, as each team can enter as many athletes as they want in each event, but only the top two scores on each team will be taken. Out of the scoring athletes, first place earns five points, second earns three, third earns two and fourth earns one point.  

This will be Texas’ fourth outdoor meet following their successful indoor season. Texas men claimed the national championship and the women’s team finished as runner up. 

Even though the outdoor season just started, the Longhorns head to College Station with an impressive record. 

At the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays last weekend, multiple school records were shattered and Texas took home first place in four relay events. 

But even with the teams’ success thus far, Coach Edrick Floréal says they have their sights set on the NCAA championship.

“This is just a positioning right now for what really matters,” Floréal said. “Which is NCAA and conference and regional.”

It will be no small feat for the Longhorns to take down the Aggies. After finishing the indoor season fifth in the men’s division and tenth in the women’s division at the indoor championship, the A&M has stayed strong in the outdoor season. 

The Aggies won six events and swept the women’s 600m in their first outdoor meet at Arizona State, racking up 15 personal bests along the way.

Last week they faced off with many of the top track programs at the Texas Relays, where Lamara Distin set a world-leading high jump mark.

However, Coach Pat Henry recognizes taking down the Longhorns will be a “great challenge” for the Aggies. 

“We’re gonna have to do absolutely the best we can do in every event,” he said on TexAgs Radio in a recent interview. “Everybody’s got to contribute. But that’s what a dual meet is about.”

Even with added pressure facing the Aggies this weekend, Floréal says he wants his team to treat this like any other meet. 

“I don’t really subscribe to any rivalry,” he said. “They want to beat us, we want to beat them. That’s the simple focus.” 

Floréal has coined the term “succeed and proceed” for the season, emphasizing that he doesn’t want lingering effects from a previous meet affecting athletes in upcoming meets. 

“We want to get there, take care of business, with no casualties, no injuries and move on to the next meet and so forth,” he said. “I’m not trying to just win at Texas A&M, I’m trying to beat every team out there.” 

All events take place this Saturday, with field events starting in the early afternoon and running events following in the evening.