| Junior Teddy Williams posted the fastest time in the world this season on Saturday. |
EL PASO ? UTSA junior Teddy Williams broke the magical 10-second barrier in winning the 100 meters to highlight action for the men’s track & field team on Saturday at the UTEP Invitational.
Williams blistered the Kidd Field track in 9.90 seconds to coast to top honors ahead of Alabama’s Ray Jadusingh (10.13) and UTEP’s Ronald Arajs (10.21). That performance was aided by a 7.8 meters/second wind but still ranks as the best under all conditions in school history and fastest in the world this season. The two-time All-American already held the school record with his previous personal-best 10.16 clocking that won the 2008 Southland Conference title and even though Saturday’s wind was above the legal limit for NCAA qualifying purposes, he has punched his Midwest Regional ticket with a 10.26 posted at the Texas Relays last week.
"I am very proud of how Teddy went out and competed today," head coach Aaron Fox said. "For him to run under 10 seconds is an amazing accomplishment. Very few people in the world can say they ran the 100 meters in less than 10 second and now he is a member of an elite group of world-class athletes. Even though he had a strong tailwind, it does not diminish what he did and he now knows his body can handle running that fast."
Williams, a Tyler native, also helped the 4x100m relay team run a season-best 40.68 in the first track event of the afternoon. He ran second leg along with sophomores Kevin Hunt, John Matthews and Eman Fondren, as the quartet finished fourth.
Freshman Michael Cook also found a place on top of the awards stand, winning the 800m with a 1:58.22 clocking, while freshman Brandon Chiuminetta was the top collegiate finisher (second overall) in the 2,000m steeplechase with a 6:37.66 effort. He was followed closely by junior Jake Orndorff in third place (7:03.51) and freshman Daniel Balbontin in fourth (7:15.64).
In the field, freshman Geulien Brisco skipped to a 47-0 1/4 (14.33m) measure in the triple jump to place second overall behind Shardae Boutte (16.27m) and first among collegians, while sophomore Vince Abron was fifth in the long jump with a 22-0 1/4 (6.71m) leap.
The Roadrunners return to the track next Friday, April 17, when they travel to Austin to compete in the Texas Twilight.