RELATED LINKSFinal results
NEW YORK CITY — Junior Taylor Reed broke his UTSA pole vault record for the second consecutive meet on Saturday to lead a parade of strong performances by the Roadrunners on the final day of competition at the New Balance Invitational.
Reed added two inches to his program standard after clearing 16-8 ¾ (5.10m) in a runner-up finish in the college section of his speciality event. The Tyler native, who has finished no worse than third in any of his four outings this season, now stands second on the Southland Conference leaderboard.
Meanwhile, junior Nate Brunette won consolation final of the college 400 meters in a personal-best time of 48.11. The mark was an 18-tick improvement on his previous PR and he solidified his second-place standing in the league rankings. The Humble native qualified for the final on Friday with the night's fourth-fastest preliminary time (48.32) in the field of 83 sprinters. Earlier in the day, Brunette placed eighth in the 200m championship division in 21.54, which was just five one-hundredths of a second shy of his school record set two weeks ago at the Texas Tech Invitational.
UTSA closed out the meet with a Southland-leading effort in the 1,600m relay. Junior Darryl Wyrick, sophomore Keyunta Hayes, freshman Christopher Hall and junior James Pailin circled the historic 168th Street Armory track eight times in 3:17.43, which was good for fifth place in the college flight.
However, the strong performances did not stop there.
The Roadrunners also saw juniors Phil Steinert and Ronson Small finish fourth in their respective events on the meet's final day.
Steinert recorded a 61-10 (18.86m) measurement in the weight throw's championship division, while Small skipped to a 48-6 (14.78m) in the college triple jump.
Finally, associate head coach Scott Slade's distance crew saw three runners place in the top 10 in the college mile. Sophomore Brady Hand was sixth (PR 1:53.77), while fellow second-year performers J.J. Jones (PR 1:54.18) and Chrisshun Jamerson (1:54.23) finished eighth and 10th, respectively, in the 72-man field.
Midway through Saturday's festivities, UTSA and head coach Aaron Fox were presented with the 2012 Louise Tricard Sportsmanship Award, which is given annually to a school that has shown outstanding enthusiasm for the competition in previous years.
The Roadrunners are off for the next two weeks before beginning their pursuit of a record seventh consecutive Southland Indoor Championship. The conference's two-day meet is scheduled to begin on Friday, Feb. 24, in Norman, Okla.