SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will travel to Denton, Texas for the Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will be held on Thursday-Sunday, May 11-14, at UNT Track & Field Stadium.
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 15th year overseeing both the men's and women's programs.
The Roadrunners will compete against league foes Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Rice, UTEP and WKU on both the men's and women's side, with Florida Atlantic and UAB only having a women's team.
Ready to compete 😤 #BirdsUp 🤙 pic.twitter.com/v7unQfSxbt
— UTSA Track & XC (@UTSATrackXC) May 11, 2023
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 men's hammer throw and continue with the second day of the heptathlon and decathlon, as well as the women's hammer at 4:30 p.m. and the 10,000-meter races that night.
On Saturday, field events are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and running events at 5:30 p.m. Sunday's field events also will begin at 1 p.m. with the running finals slated for a 6 p.m. start.
Live Coverage
Championship Central — https://conferenceusa.com/tournaments/?id=492&path=track
Live Results — https://results.blacksquirreltiming.com/meets/21145
Live Video (Saturday) — https://conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=20224&path=conf
Live Video (Sunday) — https://conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=20225&path=conf
Men's Preview
UTSA will enter the C-USA Outdoor Championships with 27 marks that rank in the top eight in the conference, headlined by a trio of league leaders.
Mike Roth will look to complete the sweep of C-USA's 400-meter crowns as the indoor champion enters this weekend with the top time in the circuit, his 45.95 clocking at the J Fred Duckett Twilight on April 22.
The Roadrunners own the top marks in both horizontal jumps. Jack Turner leaped 7.79 meters (25-6.75) in the long jump at the Cactus Cup on April 15, while All-American Jemuel Miller will look to defend his triple jump title and make it 4-for-4 in league meets during his UTSA career with the conference's top measurement of 16.08m (52-9.25).
UTSA is deep in both events with five of the top seven and six of the top nine leaps in the long jump and four of the five longest triple jumps in the league this season.
All-American Christiaan Le Roux, the 2023 C-USA Indoor long jump gold medalist, ranks third (7.60m/24-11.25), Joel McFarlane is fourth (7.52m/24-8.25), Gabriel Binion stands fifth (7.48m/24-6.5), Jacob Jenkins sits seventh (7.37m/24-2.25) and Dylan James is ninth (7.26m/23-10).
James is second in the triple jump (15.98m/52-5.25) with Jenkins and Binion ranking third (15.77m/51-9) and fifth (15.35m/50-4.5), respectively. In fact, UTSA ranks second nationally in the latest USTFCCCA Event Squad Rankings.
All-American Bashiru Abdullahi will seek to defend his C-USA crown in the 110m hurdles, as the senior raced to a meet record 13.53 clocking last May. He ranks second this season with a season best of 13.56 from the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.
The Roadrunners bring depth in the sprints with three of the top eight times in the 100m and 200m.
Dennis Phillips ranks fifth in the century with a 10.32 clocking, while Brice Chabot and Trevion McCalla are seventh (10.37) and eighth (10.38). Chabot is third in the deuce with a season best 20.76, with Phillips in fourth (20.82) and Roth in sixth (20.98).
Those three joined forces with Antony Ma to clock the league's second-fastest 4x100m relay time, a 39.75 registered at the Texas Relays.
UTSA also owns the third-fastest time in the 4x400m relay, a 3:14.23 logged by Phillips, Roth, Logan Masters and Noah Rhodes at the Texas Relays.
In other track events, Spencer Herbstritt and Jake Smith rank fifth (32:28.60) and sixth (32:57.77), respectively, in the 10,000m, while Gabriel Green owns the seventh-fastest 400m hurdles time (54.04).
The Roadrunners boast four of the top seven marks in the shot put behind Michael Campbell, who ranks second (17.63m/57-10.25), Jabari Bennett and Paul Bouey in a tie for fourth (16.79m/55-1) and Angel Robles (16.62m/54-6.5).
UTSA also is projected to score big points in the decathlon with two-time champion Jack Turner and Joel McFarlane, who ranks second in the league this season with a personal best of 7,230 points posted at the Texas Relays.
UTSA has captured six conference outdoor championships and has finished in the top three in nine of the last 12 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 fourth with 103 points at last year's C-USA Outdoor, which they hosted at Park West Athletics Complex. Abdullahi, Miller and Turner all claimed gold to help UTSA total eight podium finishes at the meet.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 74 conference crowns with 20 coming as a member of C-USA.
Women's Preview
UTSA will enter the C-USA Outdoor Championships armed with 22 marks that rank in the conference's top eight, including a pair that stand atop the league's latest descending order list.
Alanah Yukich enters the meet as the defending champion in the 400m hurdles and owns the league's top time with her 57.61 clocking posted at the J Fred Duckett Twilight. The senior from Australia also stands fourth in the 100m hurdles (13.76) and fifth in the 400m (54.19).
All-Americans Ingeborg Gruenwald and Oreoluwa Adamson provide UTSA with a potent 1-2 punch in the horizontal jumps.
Gruenwald leads the league with a 6.23m (20-5.25) mark posted at the Longhorn Invitational in March with Adamson right behind her in the standings after her 6.22m (20-5) effort at the Charles Austin Classic.
Adamson totes the third-best triple jump with her 12.55m (41-2.25) leap at the Texas Invitational on April 29, while Gruenwald ranks ninth (11.52m/37-9.5).
Marilis Remmel will head into Denton with the fourth-best javelin throw in the circuit, as she improved her own school record with a toss of 48.76m (160-0) at the Cactus Cup on April 15.
Sigrid Kleive ranks in the top eight in three events, checking in at No. 5 in the high jump (1.72m/5-7.75) and seventh in both the long jump (5.85m/19-2.5) and javelin (46.58m/152-10).
In other field events, Zoe Shanklin and Amaya King stand fifth (15.18m/49-9.75) and sixth (14.99m/49-2.25) in the shot put, while Isabella Simonelli is sixth in the hammer (56.29m/184-8) and eighth in the discus (46.30m/151-11). Acacia Astwood ranks seventh in the hammer (43.65m/143-2).
On the track, Lauren Roy and Thennelle Williams both rank in the top nine in the sprints. Williams, the 2022 C-USA Outdoor Freshman of the Meet, is fifth in the 200m (23.47) and ninth in the 100m (11.74), while Roy has the sixth-fastest time in the 100m (11.61) and 200m (23.57).
Aymui Kobayashi ranks fifth in the 100m hurdles (14.13), while Madi Henry owns the sixth-best time in the 3,000m steeplechase (11:16.17).
Both relay teams are ranked in the top five with the 4x1 of Roy, Williams, Geraldy Barron and Ibiso David-West standing fourth (46.24) and the 4x4 of Barron, David-West, Yukich and Marie Duvigneau sitting fifth (3:43.42).
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 15 times, including runner-up finishes in 1995, 2012 and at last year's meet.
At the 2022 C-USA Outdoor, the Roadrunners tallied 118 points — their most at a league outdoor meet since 139.5 at the 2012 Southland Conference Championship — for a narrow second-place finish to Charlotte, which scored 121. Yukich's 400m hurdles victory paced a total medal count of eight for UTSA at the meet.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 67 conference outdoor crowns all-time, including six as a member of C-USA.
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