HOUSTON — UTSA's All-America duo of Richard Garrett Jr. and Keyunta Hayes led the Roadrunners men's track & field team at Saturday's J. Fred Duckett Twilight.
Garrett Jr. won the two events in which he was entered. The Garland native opened the day with a measurement of 176-4 (53.76m) to top the field of 31 discus throwers. It marked his second victory of the season and fourth top-two performance in the event. The 6-foot, 275-pounder went on to break his program record in the shot put for the second time this spring. His mark of 64-6 (19.66m) not only added two-and-three-quarter inches to his previous best established at the UTSA Texas Challenge Invitational, but it was his fourth gold medal of the year in his specialty event. Garrett Jr. continues to rank sixth nationally in the shot, while leading Conference USA in both events.
Meanwhile, Hayes raced to a pair of victories in the 400-meter hurdles (51.02) and the 1,600m relay that also included Joshua Smith, Jurmarcus Shelvin and Christopher Hall and he added a runner-up effort in the 110m hurdles (13.95). The Tyler native led a UTSA 1-2-3-4 finish in the intermediate hurdles for the second consecutive week, finished as the top collegian in the high hurdles and ran the second leg of the squad's mile relay that clocked a season-best time of 3:09.85.
Four other Roadrunners — Andrew Akens (shot put/PR 60-0 ¼/18.29m), Nate Brunette (100m/10.70), Jurmarcus Shelvin (400m hurdles/51.98) and Phil Steinert (hammer/194-5/59.27m) — earned silver medals at the one-day meet.
The squad's three bronze-medal performances came from Smith (400m hurdles/52.12), Steinert (discus/PR 173-3/52.80m) and the 400m relay of Brunette, James Johnson, Aaron LeJeune and Ronson Small (40.83).
UTSA will return home next Friday, May 2, for the Roadrunners Invitational. The one-day meet will be this spring's final meet at the brand new Park West Athletics Complex and the team's final tune-up for the Conference USA Championships, which are scheduled for May 15-18.