| Junior Johnathan Whittaker won the high jump title with a personal-best leap of 6-11 on Friday. |
HOUSTON ? A gold medal performance by junior Johnathan Whittaker in the high jump and three other bronze medal finishes vaulted the UTSA men's track & field team to the top of the team standings following Friday's first day of action at the Southland Conference Championships.
The Roadrunners, who are going after their fourth consecutive title, are tied with Southeastern Louisiana with 43.5 points, while UT Arlington sits in third with 35.
"The guys performed very well today and we got most of what we expected into tomorrow's running finals," three-time defending SLC Coach of the Year Aaron Fox said. "The high jump was a huge event for us and we knew coming in that we had a chance to score a lot of points. It's definitely shaping into a battle between us, Southeastern and UTA for the championship and I feel like we have a lot of points out there tomorrow. Now, it's just a matter of the guys going out there and getting it done."
Whittaker led a 21.5-point Roadrunners effort in the high jump with his career-best leap of 6-11 (2.11m), which was the third-best performance in school history. The Houston native picked up UTSA's second consecutive title in the event and third overall, as a total of four UTSA jumpers scored points. Defending champion sophomore P.J. McGowen, the 2008 SLC Freshman of the Year, also cleared 6-11 but finished third behind Southeastern Louisiana'a Babatunde Babaloladue due to more misses. Freshman Jeffery Herron picked up four-and-a-half points after tying for fourth place (6-9/2.06m) and senior Carvey Evans rounded out the scoring with his eighth-place showing (6-7/2.01m).
McGowen added six points to the squad's total when he won a bronze medal in the long jump. The Dayton native soared a personal-record 23-6 ? (7.17m), which was the fourth-best performance in school annals.
Meanwhile, the distance medley relay quartet of freshmen Cole Reveal and Isah Muhammed, sophomore Bryan Ugochukwu and freshman Michael Cook also posted a third-place finish when they clocked a 10:15.57 (No. 5 UTSA history) in the day's final event.
The Roadrunners added a combined six points in the pole vault when senior Tommy Wolfe placed fifth with his 15-7 ? (4.76m) clearance (No. 3 UTSA history) and sophomore Dillard Glass finished seventh with his jump of 15-1 1/2 (4.61m).
Freshman Layne Nixon contributed four points to the Roadrunners' total when he recorded the second-best performance in school history in the 5k. Nixon, who placed fifth, circled the oval 25 times in 14:53.36.
Wolfe, who also is defending his league title in the heptathlon, leads after the first four events with 3,007 points, which is 11 ahead of UT Arlington's Adolphus Jones. The Raymondville native built his lead on the strength of personal-bests of 7.16 in the 60 meters, 45-7 ? (13.91m) in the shot put and 6-4 (1.93m) in the high jump. The first two marks were tops in the 17-man field.
In the preliminary running heats, UTSA sent a meet-high 11 athletes into Saturday's finals.
Leading the way was junior All-American Teddy Williams, who advanced in both short sprints. Williams clocked the day's fastest deuce time (22.05) and third-best 60m clocking in winning his heat (6.80). Meanwhile, two-time defending 60m hurdles champion Will Vese moved on with the second-quickest time (8.04) of the evening. The Roadrunners also will have three milers (Cook, Reveal, junior Corey Vargas) and a pair of 800m runners (Ugochukwu, Cook) competing for points tomorrow. Also qualifying were sophomores Benga Adeeko (60m) and Caesar Slade (200m) and 2007 SLC Champion senior Gaston Griffin (400m).
The meet concludes on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. with the final three events of the heptathlon. Field event competition gets underway at 11 a.m. and the running event finals commence at 1:40 p.m.