SAN ANTONIO — UTSA won nine events and easily cruised to the team title at this weekend's Roadrunners Invitational, which concluded on Saturday at Park West Athletics Complex.
Kelsey Benoit got the two-day meet off to a successful start on Friday with his victory in the shot put. The sophomore from San Clemente, Calif., registered a career-long measurement of 58-1 ¼ (17.71m) en route to his second gold medal of the campaign. That mark was an improvement of nearly a foot and six inches from his previous best (56-7 ½/17.26m) established in winning the Ricardo Romo Invitational crown two weeks ago. He currently ranks second in the Conference USA standings. Benoit also recorded the league's fourth-best discus performance of the year on Saturday, a personal-best 166-0 (50.59m).
"I was happy with my performance this weekend, but I feel like I still have not reached my potential this season," Benoit said. "If I keep practicing like I have the past few weeks, then I am going to get to that next level, which will help get me to regionals and, hopefully, nationals."
Victor Perez also was victorious on the opening day of the meet, as the junior from San Antonio topped the 10-man hammer field with a toss of 191-0 (58.21m). It marked his second career triumph in his specialty event and the mark moved him up to third on the circuit's leaderboard. He went on to finish third in the discus on Saturday with the conference's second-best throw this spring (167-9/51.14m).
Other Roadrunners posting wins in field events included Ty Anderson in the high jump (6-8 ¾/2.05m) and Adrian Riley in the long jump (wind-aided PR 23-11/7.29m/4th C-USA), but Levi Jordan (168-1/51.24m) and Jerrod Young (15-5/4.70m/2nd C-USA) finished as the top collegian in the discus and pole vault, respectively.
UTSA also was successful on the track, as it won another five events.
Justin Gerbrecht (400m hurdles/53.42), Kyren Hollis (800m/1:56.61), Patrick Prince (110m hurdles/wind-aided 14.13) and both relays squads claimed gold medals. The 400m foursome of Aaron LeJeune, Caleb Howe, Prince and Davante Edwards passed the baton in 42 flat and the 1,600m quartet of Kaylan Harris, Andres Salazar, Mason Loiodice and Hollis did so in 3:17.89.
The Roadrunners racked up 243 points en route to the team championship, while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (120) and Texas-Rio Grande Valley (112) were a distance second and third, respectively.
UTSA will return to action next Saturday, April 16, at the Texas Invitational in Austin.
