SAN ANTONIO — Kelsey Benoit and Adrian Riley both won gold medals on Friday and UTSA leads this weekend's inaugural Ricardo Romo Invitational through three scored events.
Benoit topped the 14-man shot put field with his career-long measurement of 56-7 ½ (17.26m), which was one inch better than runner-up Jeff Barlett from Texas A&M. The sophomore from San Clemente, Calif., registered his winning toss on his fifth attempt of the afternoon and that added a quarter inch to his previous career best established last spring. Tyler Finke added five points by finishing fourth (54-2/16.51m), giving the Roadrunners 15 combined in the second scored event of the three-day meet.
"It felt good to win for the first time in my career today, but I am not satisfied," Benoit said. "I've been working on some new things these first two meets with the hopes that I will continue to see improvement. I'm really looking forward to next week's Texas Relays because I think it could be a breakout meet for me."
Meanwhile, Riley won the two-day decathlon with a personal- and stadium-record 7,190 points on the strength of wins in the 100 meters, (wind-aided 10.62), long jump (wind-aided 22-11 ¼/6.99m), shot put (40-0 ½/12.20m), high jump (6-5/1.96m) and 400m (50.36) on Thursday and the discus (137-1/41.78m) on Friday. The sophomore from Kingston, Jamaica, also placed second in the 110m hurdles (16.11) and the pole vailt (14-5 ¼/4.40m) on the final day of multi-event competition. He set career bests in the 100m, 400m, 1,500m (5:00.89) high jump and pole vault the past two days and his score currently leads Conference USA and ranks fifth nationally.
UTSA has accumulated 32 points through the opening three events and they have an nine-point lead on second-place Akron, while No. 2 Texas A&M sits in third place with 20 points.
The three-day meet is scheduled to conclude on Saturday. Field events will get underway at 10 a.m. and running disciplines will start four hours later.