BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Competing in its first American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, the UTSA track & field teams came away from the Birmingham CrossPlex on Friday with five conference medals, including a pair of golds – notching a sweep in the men’s long jump and the day’s performances highlighted by a bevy of records shifted to the ownership of freshman Ida Breigan.
Into the latter part of the afternoon, the women’s long jump battle took center stage as Breigan (Fredrikstad, Norway) entered as the clear favorite but found herself in a slugfest with SMU’s Funminiyi Olajide, who pushed the rookie Roadrunner right into reaching the next level. Olajide surpassed Breigan’s standing AAC record on her fourth jump with a 6.53m mark, but Breigan rose to the challenge and fired right back on her fifth pass with a leap of 6.58m (21-7.25), adding a full three inches to her personal best, extending her UTSA, AAC and Norwegian Indoor national records while adding meet record to her resume with the gold medal-winning performance.
Right behind her efforts, three Roadrunners from the men’s team combined to load up the medal stand with a top-3 sweep of the men’s long jump. Coming right out of the gate strong, junior Gabriel Binion (Sydney, Australia) earned his first conference medal with a 7.55m (24-9.25) event-winner. Just an inch shy of his mark, junior Christiaan Le Roux (Roodepoort, South Africa) garnered silver on a fifth-approach 7.52m (24-8.25), while classmate Dylan James (Perth, Australia) secured his spot on the medal stand with a third-place 7.44m (24-5.0) on the final attempt. Registering a season-best 7.30m (23-11.50) on his fifth jump, junior Jacob Jenkins (Round Rock, Texas) added more points to the UTSA pool with a seventh-place finish in the event.
In the final event of the night, senior Isabella Simonelli (Goldie, Australia) captured silver and extended her own school record by five inches via a 19.29m (63-3.5) toss on her second attempt.
The Roadrunners moved six athletes ahead to the second day of competition as finals qualifiers. Senior Ayumi Kobayashi (Funabashi, Japan) tied her career best in the 60-meter hurdles with an 8.51 that matches her existing No. 4 position in the UTSA records, winning the second heat by a tenth of a second to advance with the third-fastest time. Joining her in the finals, junior Thennelle Williams (St. Catherine, Jamaica) was third in the women’s 60-meter preliminaries after winning the third head on a 7.45-second clocking. She came in 13th in the 200-meter prelims in a tight qualifier. Smithville, Texas native Brice Chabot (21.17) and St. Thomas, Ontario’s Mike Roth (21.24), both juniors, will vie for the men’s 200-meter championship on Saturday, coming in at third and fifth, respectively – with Chabot nudging his No. 5 time lower in the UTSA records. Entering the weekend on top of the standings, Roth will also get a crack at the 400-meter title after winning the first heat on a 47.71 clocking. Representing the distance corps, sophomore Victor Charo (Abilene, Texas) earned a personal-best 1:54.18 to move on to Saturday’s 800-meter final.
At the end of one day of competition, the Roadrunner men are in fifth at 26 points, while the women are in sixth at 18 points.
The final day of championship competition for UTSA begins on Saturday with the women’s high jump at 10:30 a.m., followed by men’s shot put, women’s triple jump, women’s shot put and men’s triple jump. The finals on the track begin at 12:35 p.m. with the 400-meter final, 60-meter hurdles, 60-meter, 800-meter, 200-meter and then closing the meet on the 4 x 400-meter relays ahead of the 3:50 p.m. awards ceremony.
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