· Final results
· Post-meet interview with head coach Aaron Fox
UTSA won Southland Conference Indoor Championships in five events this weekend en route to its fifth consecutive title (photo by Kevin Ellis).
NORMAN, Okla. — The UTSA men's track & field team received a pair of winning performances from senior All-American Teddy Williams in both short sprints, junior Devon Bond was victorious in the triple jump and the Roadrunners cruised to their fifth consecutive Southland Conference Indoor Championship on Saturday afternoon.
Williams successfully defended his titles in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes to become the first athlete in league history to win both crowns in consecutive years.
The reigning Southland Indoor Athlete of the Year raced to his fourth NCAA provisional qualifying time of the season in the 60m (6.66), and he easily outran his nearest competitor by six one-hundredths of a second for his third consecutive crown in the event.
An hour later, the Tyler native recorded one of the most dramatic finishes in meet history with his triumph in the deuce.
After Southeastern Louisiana's Shannon Grover posted the fastest opening heat time (21.73), Williams clocked the same mark in the second and final section, but when the times were stretched out, he owned a scant one, one-thousandth-of-a-second victory, giving him the eighth gold medal of his illustrious four-year career.
Meanwhile, Bond skipped to a provisional 52-1 ¾ (15.89m) in winning UTSA's first-ever conference championship in the triple jump.
"I can't begin to express how proud I am of our athletes," head coach Aaron Fox said. "To win a fifth straight title takes a lot of hard work and dedication from everyone on the roster and we received so many great performances this weekend. I'm extremely proud of our distance runners because they really stepped up this season. That's a testament to the job that Scott (Slade) and Virginia (Coindreau) have done. David (Burnett) and Chris (Adams) also did a fantastic job with their athletes. I'm so fortunate to have such great assistants because we wouldn't be experiencing the success we are without their hard work and dedication to this program."
The three victories, when combined the Roadrunners' two from Friday (Keith Benford, high jump/distance medley relay), pushed the program's all-time total to 50 and more than half (26) have come under the direction of Fox.
UTSA scored 120 points to easily outdistance second-place Stephen F. Austin, which netted 99.5, and third-place Sam Houston State (90).
The Roadrunners entered the day with a 10.5-point cushion and never looked back.
Sophomore Albert Cardenas and freshman Richard Garrett Jr. both picked up eight points with their second-place finishes in the mile and shot put, respectively. Cardenas clocked a 4:12.70 for the second-best time in program history, while Garrett launched the implement 57-9 ½ (17.61m).
UTSA racked up a total of 16 points in the 200m, as freshman Adam Hebert (pr 21.91) and junior John Matthews (22.27) placed fifth and seventh, respectively, behind Williams. Matthews also scored two-and-a-half points with his sixth-place performance (8.20) in the 60m hurdles.
The Birds also had an impressive showing in the 800m with senior Bryan Ugochukwu (1:53.63) and juniors Canel Cole (1:53.84) and Brandon Chiuminetta (1:54.64) finishing 3-5-6, which was good for 13 addition tallies.
Junior Kyle Kaase rallied late in the heptathlon on the strength of a school-record effort in the pole vault (16-4 ¾/5.00m) to finish sixth with the fifth-best point total (4,942) is school annals.
The team's final points came in the day's final event, the 1,600m relay, in what amounted to eight victory laps for the Roadrunners. The quartet of Ugochukwu, freshman Xaviar Archangel, Cole and freshman Spenser Eggleston stopped the clock in 3:20.45, which was good for seventh place, but by that point, the celebration already had begun.
Lamar holds the league record for consecutive championships with six (1980-85).