Junior Tommy Wolfe won UTSA's third consecutive decathlon title on Saturday. |
HUNTSVILLE ? Junior Tommy Wolfe led nine UTSA athletes that scored points onSaturday with a first-place finish in the decathlon to highlight theRoadrunners men's track & field second day of action at theSouthland Conference Outdoor Championships at York Track & FieldComplex.
UTSA has scored 51.5 points through the first eight events and trail Southeastern Louisiana by 13.5 points. Stephen F. Austin is three points behind the Roadrunners (48.5).
Wolfescored an NCAA provisional and career-best 7,395 points, which ranks among the top 15 marks in the country this season, and it also was the second-best performance inschool history and the program's third consecutive decathlonchampionship. Trailing by just 10 points entering Saturday, theRaymondville native took over the lead in the eighth event, the polevault, and never looked back. Clinging to a two-point advantageentering the javelin, Wolfe sewed up the title with a toss of 193-11(59.10m). His older brother, Bryan, won the 2006 championship and formerAll-American Brandon Buteaux was victorious a year ago. Coupled with his indoor heptathlon title in February, Wolfe became the first athlete to win both the league's multi-events in the same season. Freshman LucasNeeper scored 5,654 points and picked for a seventh-place finish.
The Roadrunners briefly took over the leadafter scoring a combined 15.5 points in the high jump. Freshman P.J. McGowen led the waywith a record-setting second-place performance. McGowen cleared 7-0 ?(2.15m) to tie the UTSA record shared by Steve Ortiz and formerAll-American Justin Youngblood, both of which were set during the 2002campaign. Sophomore Johnathan Whittaker leaped 6-10 ? (2.10m) to finish fourth and sophomore Carvey Evans tied for sixth with hispersonal-beat clearance at the same height.
Senior Luke Johnsonand sophomore Ryan McMakin kept UTSA in first place in the day's nextevent, the shot put, with their fourth and seventh-place efforts,respectively. Johnson collected points for the second day in a row withhis toss of 55-0 (19.76m). McMakin, meanwhile, scored for the firsttime at the conference meet with his throw of 50-4 (15.34m).
Earlierin the day, senior Steven Brown and McGowen accounted for 10 points inthe long jump. Brown leaped an NCAA Regional 24-3 ? (7.41m) andfinished in third place. McGowen posted a fifth-place performance withhis personal-best jump of 23-11 ? (7.31m).
In the runningpreliminary heats, the Roadrunners sent 11 athletes into Sunday'sfinals. The Lions, meanwhile, have seven that will run in the meet'sfinal day.
Sophomore Teddy Williams was the star, as hequalified for the finals in both the 100 and 200 meters with thesecond-fastest marks in school history. The Tyler native recorded theday's fastest time in the 100 with an NCAA Regional 10.32. He then spedto a regional mark of 20.95 in the deuce. Brown (pr 10.36/21.12) andsenior Cedric Harris (pr 10.40/21.16) also moved into the finals withNCAA Regional times in both events.
UTSA's other topperformance came from senior Will Vese, who raced to the top time inthe 110-meter hurdles with his 14.02 clocking.
Field events get underway at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday and the running finals kick off at 5:10 p.m.