SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA track & field teams open the 2024 outdoor season, hosting their first event of the year and are set to recognize senior day during this weekend’s UTSA Invitational, Friday-Saturday, March 15-16, at the Park West Athletics Complex. Admission and parking are free.
The two-day annual home meet will get underway at 2 p.m. Friday with the hammer throw, followed by the shot put and then the javelin at 6 p.m. for the field events. Three distance races – the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, and then the women’s and men’s 5,000-meter runs will begin in succession at 8:15 p.m.
Returning to action on Saturday morning, the pole vault will open field event competitions at 11 a.m., followed on a rolling schedule by the high jump, long jump, triple jump and discus. Track events begin competition at 2 p.m. with the 4x100-meter relays, then 100/110-meter hurdles, 400-meter, 100-meter, 800-meter, 400-meter hurdles, 200-meter, 1,500-meter and closing up with the 4x400-meter relays.
UTSA’s annual Senior Day recognition is scheduled for Saturday at 12 p.m. and the Roadrunners will recognize 12 seniors: Abby Balli, Jabari Bennett, Luzaan De Wit, Elijah Frizell, Sabrina Goains, Gabriel Green, Amaya King, Ayumi Kobayashi, Dennis Phillips, Isabella Simonelli, Zoe Shanklin and Maren Wilms.
The Roadrunners will compete against athletes from Incarnate Word, North Dakota State, Our Lady of the Lake, Rice, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas State.
UTSA is fresh off the indoor season and the First Team All-American performance of freshman Ida Breigan, who capped the year finishing sixth in the long jump on a measurement of 6.38m (20-11.25) at the NCAA Championships in Boston. The Norwegian rookie won the event at the American Athletic Conference Championships on a record-shattering 6.58m (21-7.25) jump that earned her AAC Outstanding Field Performance in addition to her AAC Women’s Indoor Freshman of the Year award. Breigan wasn’t the only UTSA champion to reach the podium in Birmingham at AAC Indoors, as junior Gabriel Binion won the long jump at 7.55m (24-9.25) and then followed with the triple jump gold on a 15.77m (51-9.0) measurement – paving the way for his Men’s Most Valuable Performer honors at the conference meet.
In addition, at AAC Indoors, the Roadrunners swept the long jump medals on Friday with Christiaan Le Roux taking silver beside Binion (7.52m (24-8.25)), while classmate Dylan James earned third place on a 7.44m (24-5.0) measurement. James then earned his second medal with a third-place triple jump of 15.38m (50-5.5). Mike Roth was second in the 400-meter (46.44), while Brice Chabot picked up silver in the 200-meter (21.01). In the throws, Isabella Simonelli earned silver in the weight throw with a school-record 19.29m (63-3.5) toss. The men’s relay squad of Martín Kouyoumdjian, Noah Rhodes, Nabil Tezkratt and Roth also earned the AAC’s 4x400-meter silver medal.
In last year’s UTSA Invitational, the Roadrunners hauled in 10 gold medals and produced 26 top-three finishes in the two-day meet. The women were victorious in six events and registered 12 podium finishes, while the men tallied four golds and 14 total medals.
Returning to the outdoor squad from last year’s top performers, Lauren Roy swept the women's short sprints with gold medals in both the 100-meter (11.86) and 200-meter (23.93), while Marilis Remmel’s gold-medal javelin measurement of 45.94m (150-9) highlighted the first day of action in 2023. Roth claimed gold in the sprints with a win in the men's 400-meter (46.96). Meanwhile, Le Roux (7.09m [23-3.25]) and Binion (7.07m [23-2.5]) earned second and third in the long jump a year ago.
Additionally, Dennis Phillips and Chabot return from the first-place men’s 4x100-meter relay that won the event in 39.94.
The UTSA Invitational will be held this weekend at the Park West Athletics Complex, featuring the track stadium hosting one of only 10 Class 1 IAAF certified surfaces in the country. The facility features a Beynon Sports BSS 1000, full-pour, polyurethane surface with nine running lanes, two pole vault lanes, four jump pits, a water jump pit and separate throwing areas for all throwing events. The throwing areas and track infield feature Tifway 419 hybrid Bermuda grass sand-based fields.
The multi-use facility is located on Kyle Seale Parkway approximately two miles west of UTSA’s Main Campus and features a large parking lot, a multipurpose building with a concession stand, restrooms, ticket windows, training room and a 1,000-seat stadium with a press box.
Meet information, including the schedule, can be found here.
Complete heat and scoring sheets can be found here.
Live results will be available online throughout the competition and can be found here.
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