NEW YORK, N.Y. — Aaron LeJeune raced to a gold medal in the college division of the 60 meter dash on Friday to highlight the UTSA men's track & field team at this weekend's Armory Collegiate Invitational.
The freshman from Spring crossed the finish line in a personal-best time of 6.91 to top the field of nine finalists that advanced from the seven preliminary heats by three-hundredths of a second. It was the first victory of his career and the winning time was four ticks faster than his previous best of 6.95 established at the Houston Opener back on Jan. 11. LeJeune qualified for the final after winning the fourth section in 6.99, which was the third-best mark in the field of 50 sprinters. It marked the Roadrunners' second all-time triumph in the 60m at the prestigious annual meet, as Teddy Williams was victorious in the championship division four years ago.
Meanwhile, Nathan Collier clocked a program-record time of 2:27.32 en route to a 13th-place performance in the 1,000m. That broke the previous mark of 2:29.32 set by Albert Cardenas two years ago at the Texas Tech Invitational.
UTSA also got a silver medal performance from the distance medley relay of Collier, Jurmarcus Shelvin, Tony Jaramillo and Brady Hand in the final event of the day. The foursome passed the baton in 10:13.72 in finishing second to Mount Olive (10:01.19).
Jonas Gutierrez advanced to the 60m hurdles final, where he placed fifth in a season-best 8.23. The sophomore from Weslaco posted the sixth-best preliminary time, 8.32, in the field of 47 hurdlers. Gutierrez also was 12th in the long jump with his top measurement of the campaign (23-0 ¾/7.03m).
Saturday saw the 1,600m relay quartet of Shelvin, Christopher Hall, Gutierrez and Smith circle the historic 168th Armory oval eight times in a season-best 3:15.65, which was good for third place. Taylor Reed also cleared a season-high 16-10 ¾ (5.15m) en route to fifth place in the pole vault and that moved him to second place on the Conference USA leaderboard.
The Roadrunners will return to action next Friday, Feb. 14, at the Houston Tune-Up.