SAN ANTONIO — UTSA's men's and women's track & field teams will return to action this weekend at the prestigious Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin. The four-day meet began on Wednesday at Mike A. Myers Stadium, but the Roadrunners will not begin competition until Thursday evening.
The men will have 12 entries over the next three days, while the women will have 10.
Kelsey Benoit (shot put), Randy Bermea (400m hurdles), Mikael Dawkins (100m), Tyler Finke (shot put/B section) Justin Gerbrecht (110m hurdles/400m hurdles), Aaron LeJeune (100m), Dusan Makevic (Jerry Thompson Mile Invitational/3,000m steeplechase), Patrick Prince (110m hurdles), Jurmarcus Shelvin (400m hurdles) and a distance medley relay team will represent the Roadrunners on the men's side.
Meanwhile, Christy Gilbert (400m hurdles), Rachael Grossman (400m hurdles), De'Stini Henderson (100m), Syd Howells (100m), Grace Kohler (3,000m steeplechase), Kerstin Sheehan (5,000m), Stephanie Wangui (800m invitational/1,500m) and both a 800m and 1,600m relay squad will compete for the women.
The Longhorn Network will televise Thursday's action beginning at 6 p.m. and there will be two broadcast windows on Friday (9:30 a.m/7 p.m.). Fans also can watch the action beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday (click here for the complete meet schedule).
Shelvin repeated as Conference USA Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday. The senior from Pasadena just missed his second victory in the 400-meter hurdles in as many meets to open the outdoor campaign last Saturday at the inaugural Ricardo Romo Invitational when he was edged by Texas A&M's Robert Grant by a mere four one-thousandths of a second. He dueled with Grant throughout the third heat and both runners broke the tape in 50.21, but the Aggie out leaned UTSA's All-American for the victory. The pair now owns the third-fastest time in the country this season and the mark broke Shelvin's previous personal best from a year ago by a quarter of a second.
Ty Anderson (high jump/7-0 ½/2.15m), Benoit (shot put/56-7 ½/17.26m) and Adrian Riley (decathlon/7,190 points) all won gold medals for the Roadrunners at the three-day meet with career-best performances. Riley currently ranks fifth in the country, while Anderson is tied for 11th.
The women were paced by Wangui, who finished as the top collegian in the 800 meters after clocking a season-best 2:09.07 in the third heat on Saturday afternoon. That was good for fourth place in the field of 18 middle distance runners and it vaulted her to the top of the Conference USA leaderboard. The time also ranks 21st nationally through two meets this season.
UTSA added a total of four podium finishes last weekend. Gabriyella Torres was second in the heptathlon (league-leading 4,280 points), while Tameyah Carroll (long jump/18-5/5.61m), Elesha Alyn (triple jump/39-9 ¾/12.13m) and the 1,600m relay quartet of Shantel Swift, Evelyn Clark, Jennifer Arinze and Paige Patterson passed the baton in a conference-best 3:42.39 in the final event of the meet.