| UTSA head coach Aaron Fox will send 11 athletes to the NCAA Midwest Regional this weekend. |
SAN ANTONIO ? The UTSA men’s track & field will look to continue one of its most successful seasons in school history this weekend when 11 athletes will travel to Lincoln, Neb., for the NCAA Midwest Regional. The two-day meet, which begins at 1 p.m. on Friday and runs through Saturday evening, will take place at Ed Weir Stadium on the campus of the University of Nebraska.
Competing for the Roadrunners this weekend will be seniors Steven Brown, Cedric Harris, Luke Johnson and Will Vese; junior Carvey Evans; sophomores Marcus Bibles, Alton St. Rose, Johnathan Whittaker and Teddy Williams; and freshmen Kevin Hunt and P.J. McGowen.
Leading the way for UTSA is Williams, who will compete in the 100 and 200 meters in addition to running the second leg of the Roadrunners’ 400-meter relay squad. The Tyler native, who won the Southland Conference Championship in both short sprints three weeks ago, enters the meet with the region’s second-best 100m time (UTSA-record 10.16) and seventh-fastest mark in the deuce (school-record 20.60). Those clockings also rank sixth and 15th, respectively, on the national leaderboard. He has qualified for the regional meet in his last six 100m races and in all three of his 200m efforts this season. Williams also helped lead the 4x1 to a school-record 39.84 performance on April 5 at the Texas Relays. That time ranks fifth in the region entering this weekend.
Brown and Harris will join their second-year teammate as the only Roadrunners competing in three events. The pair finished 2-3 to Williams at the SLC Outdoor meet in both short sprints and also were a part of the squad’s gold-medal 400m relay team. Brown, who also qualified in the long jump but will not compete in that event, enters this weekend in eighth place in both the 100m (10.31) and 200m (20.67) on the regional leaderboard, while Harris 11th in both events (10.37/20.78). The pair were a part of the record-setting 400m relay quartet at the Texas Relays.
The 100m preliminary heats will be contested at 3:40 p.m. on Friday and the 200m prelims will follow at 6:20 p.m. The finals are slated for 5:10 and 6:05 p.m., respectively, the following evening.
Vese will pull double duty, as he will compete in the 110-meter hurdles in addition to running the lead leg on the 400m relay. The SLC Champion in the high hurdles, he owns five regional marks this season, including a school-record 13.81 set at the Hurricane Invitational on March 22. The Houston native was named the league’s Athlete of the Week following that winning performance. Vese will run both his preliminary heats in a one-hour, 15-minute span on Friday (4x1, 1:45 p.m.; 110m hurdles, 3 p.m.). The final for the 4x1 is slated for 4:10 p.m. on Saturday and the 110m hurdles final will take place 45 minutes later.
The high jump, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, will feature a region-high four UTSA athletes in Bibles, Evans, McGowen and Whittaker. McGowen leads the way with his school-record-tying clearance of 7-0 ? (2.15m/t-No. 7 region), set three weeks ago in a second-place performance at the SLC Outdoor. The Dayton native first qualified for this weekend’s meet when he leaped 6-10 ? (2.10m) in winning the Hurricane Invitational title on March 21. The other three, meanwhile, come into the meet tied for 15th with their marks of 6-10 ? (2.10m).
Johnson qualified for the second year in a row in the shot put. His personal-best throw of 55-8 ? (16.97m) won the Rice Twilight on April 24 and earned him SLC Athlete of the Week honors. The Amarillo native enters the meet ranked 13th in the region and he will begin competition at 5 p.m. on Friday.
St. Rose will compete in the triple jump at 5 p.m. on Saturday. His former school record of 49-2 ? (15.00m), recorded on April 12 at the Javelina Open, got him into the field of 22.
Hunt, meanwhile, will serve as an alternate for the 400m relay squad. He ran the anchor leg on the squad’s SLC Championship team three weeks ago.
The top five finishers in each individual event and the top three teams in the 400m and 1,600m relays will earn automatic bids to this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships, which are scheduled for June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Midwest Regional is one of four regional meets contested this weekend to help determine the national field. Student-athletes from institutions located in the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. For complete Midwest Regional meet information, live video and real-time results, please click here.