SAN ANTONIO – It’s officially outdoor season this weekend, as the UTSA men’s and women’s track and field teams will kick off the Roadrunners’ campaign at the Park West Athletics Complex, hosting the UTSA Invitational, Friday-Saturday, March 20-21. Admission and parking are free.
Held annually at Park West, the two-day home meet will open competition on Friday, March 20, beginning with the women’s and then men’s javelin at 10 a.m. The hammer throw, shot put and long jump will all begin at 2 p.m. for Friday’s field events. Distance events are the only opening-day running events, with the 5,000-meter run set for 8:30 p.m..
Action at Park West resumes on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. with pole vault, high jump, triple jump and discus. Running events on Saturday begin at 2 p.m. on a rolling schedule, kicking off with the 4x100-meter relays, followed by 100-meter/110-meter hurdles, 400-meter, 100-meter, 800-meter, 400-meter hurdles, 200-meter, 1,500-meter and concluding on the 4x400-meter relays.
UTSA’s annual Senior Day recognition is scheduled for Saturday at 12 p.m. and the Roadrunners will recognize 6 seniors: Victory Charo, Lauralyn Clifford, Shadae Findley, Fatoumata Kabo, Daisy Monie and Itzel Rojo.
The Roadrunners will compete against athletes from Arkansas, Northwestern Oklahoma State, Our Lady of the Lake, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Texas State and UIW.
Wrapping up the indoor season, the UTSA women finished sixth at the American Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, while the men were seventh. Leading off UTSA’s conference titles, freshman Janre Jõgi won the heptathlon with a combined 5,535 points with section wins in the 60-meter, long jump and 60-meter hurdles. Junior Edlin Laur topped the women’s high jump with a school-record 1.84m (6-0.5) height, while junior Ida Breigan earned her third consecutive American Indoor Championships title and also third straight American Most Outstanding Performance award, while redshirt junior Jemuel Miller topped the triple jump field, setting a new school record late in the season at 16.42m (53-10.5). Both Miller and Breigan qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with Breigan collecting First Team All-American accolades on an 8th-place 6.35m (20-10) measurement. Junior Nyaluet Diew also set the women’s shot put program record at the American meet with a 16.17m (53-0.75) heave.
At last year’s UTSA Invitational, the Roadrunners generated 46 top-10 finishes, notching 15 medal-earning performances, which included five gold medals. The men’s team hauled in three gold medals among six podium appearances, while the women had two golds and nine medal-worthy performances.
The UTSA Invitational will be held 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, training room and a 1,000-seat stadium with a press box.
Meet information, including the schedule, can be found here.
Live results will be available online throughout the competition and can be found here.
Up next: UTSA will travel up I-35 to Texas State’s Charles Austin Classic next weekend in San Marcos, March 27-28.
- UTSA -