EL PASO — Ty Anderson (high jump) and Tyler Finke (shot put) both won their respective events on Saturday and those two victories helped propel UTSA into the lead in the team standings after eight scored events at this weekend's Conference USA Championships.
Anderson captured his second league title in the past three years and the sixth in program history with his personal-best clearance of 7-1 (2.16m), which was just three-quarters of an inch shy of Keith Benford's six-year-old school record. The junior All-American from Luling, who came into the meet with the circuit's top mark of the season, out-dueled Middle Tennessee's Jacob Patten and he now ranks 25th in the country after coming into the meet at 38th.
Meanwhile, Finke led five Roadrunners that scored points in the shot, which added 28 to the team total. The senior from Celina won his specialty event with a career-long measurement of 58-3 ¼ (17.76m), which now ranks third on the program's all-time performers chart. It marked UTSA's third all-time league title in the event and first since 2014.
"Today felt really good," Finke said. "My throwing was clicking together and I'm glad I was able to win with a new PR. I'm? happy to have completed well with my teammates and can't wait to see how we finish out the meet tomorrow."
Kelsey Benoit (57-6 ½/17.54m) and Gabe Vargas (56-10/17.32m) placed second and third, respectively, while Derek Fenton finished sixth (53-3 ¾/16.25m) and Mike Zuniga was eighth (50-11 ½/15.53m).
Their two individual conference crowns pushed the program's all-time total to 66 and 39 of those have come under the direction of Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox, who is in his 15th season leading the Roadrunners.
The long jump saw Adrian Riley and Kaylon Sellers combine for nine points after the pair finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Riley, who finished second in the two-day decathlon on Friday, broke the sand in 24-3 ¾ (7.41m), while Sellers was three inches behind his teammate with a leap of 24-0 ¾ (7.33m). Western Kentucky's Ventavius Sears easily won the event with a measurement of 25-3 ½ (7.71m).
In the running preliminary heats, UTSA saw four athletes advance to Sunday's finals.
Patrick Prince topped the field of 14 110-meter hurdlers with his time of 13.97, while Randy Bermea posted the fastest 400m hurdles clocking after pacing the 16-man field with his season-best 52.11.
Vasha Sheriff circled the Kidd Field oval in 46.92 in the 400m, which was the third-best time of the night, and Luca Chatham grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot in the 800m (1:54.30).
Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky led the way with 12 qualifiers, while Charlotte had nine and meet host UTEP saw eight move on.
UTSA has racked up 60 points with eight of the 21 events scored. Rice (55) and meet host UTEP (36) round out the top three. Middle Tennessee (33), Charlotte (32.5) and defending champion WKU (28) are lurking behind in fourth through sixth, respectively.
The four-day meet will wrap up on Sunday.
