SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to compete in the 2021 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will be hosted by Middle Tennessee on Thursday-Sunday, May 13-16, at Dean A. Hayes Track & Soccer Stadium.
Following a one-year hiatus after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 outdoor season, the Roadrunners will compete against league foes Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, UTEP and WKU on both the men's and women's side, with Florida Atlantic, Marshall and UAB only having a women's team.
UTSA is under the leadership of Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox, a veteran of the UTSA staff since 2000 who is in his 13th year overseeing both the men's and women's programs.
The four-day meet will get underway on Thursday with the women's heptathlon starting at 2:45 p.m., followed shortly by the first event in the men's decathlon at 3:15 p.m.
Friday's action will kick off at 2 p.m. with the women's hammer throw and continue with the second day of the heptathlon and decathlon, as well as the men's hammer and the 10,000-meter races.
On Saturday, field events are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and running events at 3:30 p.m. Sunday's field events also will begin at 1 p.m. with the running finals slated for a 4 p.m. start.
Men's Preview
UTSA will enter the C-USA Outdoor Championships with 12 marks that rank in the top eight in the conference, headlined by a trio of league leaders.
The Roadrunners own the top three marks in the long jump, as Sam Healy ranks first with his season-best leap of 7.64 meters (25-0.75), while Christie Le Roux (7.54m/24-9) and Jack Turner (7.53m/24-8.5) are close behind. In fact, UTSA is 11th nationally in the long jump in the latest USTFCCCA #EventSquad Rankings.
Grant Szalek has his sights set on a sweep of the conference's triple jump crowns. The reigning C-USA Indoor triple jump champion sits atop the league leaderboard with a mark of 15.84m (51-11.75), which ranks the Perth, Australia, native second on UTSA's all-time performers list.
Szalek also stands fifth among the league's high jumpers with an outdoor season-best clearance of 2.07m (6-9.5). He has finished second and third in the high jump at each of the past two C-USA indoor meets.
Bashiru Abdullahi will enter the meet as the favorite in the 110-meter hurdles, as his season-best time of 13.61 — which was wind-illegal but is the fastest under any conditions in UTSA history — is 0.32 seconds faster than the next-closest competitor on the latest conference list. The Benin City, Nigeria, product won the 2020 C-USA Indoor title in the 60m hurdles and earned the silver medal this year.
Three Roadrunners are expected to challenge for spots on the podium in the decathlon after finishing 1-2-3 in the C-USA Indoor heptathlon.
Justin Wright enters the meet with the third-best point total (6,248) and the Dripping Springs High School product collected the bronze medal in the heptathlon earlier this year.
Despite only posting a mark in eight of the 10 disciplines, 2021 C-USA heptathlon silver medalist Joel McFarlane's tally of 5,587 points from the Roadrunner Invitational in April still stands eighth in the league.
Turner, who has won the last two conference heptathlon titles, has not yet registered a decathlon point total this season but still ranks among the favorites to win the crown. The 2021 C-USA Indoor Male Field Performer of the Meet owns a personal best of 7,297 points posted in winning the 2019 England U20 Championship.
Andrew Pirog will aim for his third conference medal in the 400m hurdles, as the senior out of San Antonio Reagan High School boasts the league's fifth-fastest time of 51.84. Two years ago, he placed third at the C-USA Outdoor with a PR of 51.32 after a runner-up finish in 2018.
Pirog also is a likely candidate to help the 4x400m relay score points, as UTSA heads to Tennessee with the sixth-best time in the league, a 3:17.70 posted at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.
The 4x100m relay squad will enter the meet with the eighth-fastest time (41.94), while Jorge Ayala also stands eighth in the shot put (15.98m/52-2.25).
UTSA has captured six conference outdoor championships and has finished in the top three in nine of the last 10 meets. The Roadrunners won the C-USA Outdoor title in each of their first two years in the league in 2013 and 2014, and they also finished atop the Southland Conference team standings in 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
The Roadrunners finished third at each of the past two C-USA Outdoor meets after a runner-up showing in 2017.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 70 conference crowns with 16 coming as a member of C-USA.
Women's Preview
UTSA will travel to Murfreesboro armed with 20 marks that rank in the top eight, including 11 in the top three, in the latest C-USA performance lists.
Faith Roberson and Alanah Yukich stand 1-2 in the conference in the 400m hurdles and that duo has helped the Roadrunners rank seventh nationally in the latest USTFCCCA #EventSquad rankings.
Roberson, a two-time C-USA Track Athlete of the Week honoree, set the school record earlier this year with a 57.54 clocking at the Texas Relays.
Yukich just missed the school standard with a 57.57 posted in finishing as the top collegian at the J. Fred Duckett Twilight, which earned her the league's athlete of the week award. The Perth, Australia, native also owns the second-fastest time in the conference in the 100m hurdles with a 13.67 recorded at the Roadrunner Invitational, which ranks her fifth on UTSA's all-time performers list.
The Roadrunners look to score big in the horizontal jumps with four of the top 10 marks in both the long and triple jumps. In fact, UTSA stands seventh in the triple and 15th in the long in the latest USTFCCCA #EventSquad Rankings.
Ingeborg Gruenwald and Oreoluwa Adamson are 2-3 in the league in the long jump. Gruenwald, the reigning C-USA Indoor long jump champion has leaped 6.27m (20-7) this season, which puts her third on the school's all-time performers list. Adamson broke the sand at a distance of 6.25m (20-6.25) at the Roadrunner Invitational to place her third in the league and fourth in the UTSA record book.
Sigrid Kleive owns the conference's sixth-best long jump with a mark of 6.07m (19-11), while Amaya Scott is ninth (5.96m/19-6.75).
Danielle Spence leads a quartet of Roadrunners in the triple jump with the league's third-best mark, a 12.54m (41-1.75) measurement posted at the UTSA Invitational in March. Johanna Soover is eighth (12.22m/40-1.25), while Gruenwald (12.17m/39-11.25) and Adamson (12.16m/39-10.75) stand ninth and 10th, respectively.
UTSA also figures to show well in the throws, with two of the top four marks in both the shot put and javelin, as well as a pair of the top-six discus throws. The Roadrunners currently sit 39th in the shot put and 41st in the javelin in the latest USTFCCCA #EventSquad Rankings.
Maia Campbell appears in the top eight in three different events. The senior from Converse Judson High School ranks second in the shot put with her school-record 15.95m (52-4) measurement at the Roadrunner Invitational, an event where she grabbed gold a year ago indoors. She also stands sixth in the discus (47.54m/156-0) and eighth in the hammer (54.69m/179-5).
Lacee Barnes broke the UTSA and Cayman Islands national records in the discus with a throw of 51.52m (169-0) — the second-best mark in the conference — at the Texas A&M Team Invitational. The senior also ranks fourth in the league in the shot put with a season-best mark of 14.60m (47-11).
Marilis Remmel and Kleive will enter the meet with the league's third- and fourth-best javelin throws. Remmel, a freshman from Estonia, established a school record with a throw of 47.65m (156-4) to win the Alumni Muster on May 1, while Kleive, a native of Norway, previously owned the UTSA standard in the event with a season-best mark of 45.51m (149-4) at the UTSA Invitational in March.
Kleive also will head to the C-USA Outdoor with the second-best clearance in the high jump, a leap of 1.71m (5-7.25) posted at the UTSA Invitational.
Maren Wilms will look to contend for a medal in the heptathlon, as the freshman from Germany ranks third with a 4,722 point total.
The Roadrunners' relay teams will look to score points, as the 4x400m stands fourth (3:48.43) and the 4x1 ranks eighth (46.18) in the conference, while Brooke Lomax will take the eighth-fastest 800m time (2:13.32) into the meet.
UTSA has captured five conference outdoor titles, with all five coming during a six-year stretch from 1992 to 1997 in the Southland Conference. The Roadrunners have placed fourth or higher 13 times, including runner-up finishes in 1995 and 2012.
UTSA's top finish at the C-USA Outdoor is sixth in 2015 and 2018. The Roadrunners were 10th two years ago at the last outdoor meet.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 63 conference crowns in its outdoor history.
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