SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men's and women's track & field teams return to action this week when they are scheduled to compete at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin and the local Trinity Tigers Relays.
Head coach Aaron Fox will send a contingent of 26 athletes (14 men/12 women) and a half dozen relay squads (five men/one women) to Mike A. Myers Stadium for the 84th annual Texas Relays. The four-day meet gets underway at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday with the multi-events compeitions and runs through Saturday evening (click here for complete schedule).
The remainder of the two squads will take part in Friday's Trinity Tigers Relays in the Alamo City. That meet begins at 3 p.m. and runs for the next five-and-a-half hours (click here for complete meet information).
The Roadrunners are coming off dominating performances at last Friday's Trinity Alumni Classic, a meet in which they won a total of 19 gold medals (nine men/10 women).
Leading the way for the men were sophomore Taylor Reed and freshman Keyunta Hayes.
Reed cleared 16-6 ¾ (5.05m) in a silver-medal performance in the pole vault and that broke Kyle Kaase's year-old record of 16-4 ¾ (5.00m). The junior college All-American vaulted to the top of the Southland Conference standings, where he shares the first place with Texas State's Logan Cunningham. The pair is a half foot ahead of their nearest competitor.
Hayes peeled off a 13.87 in the opening preliminary heat of the 110-meter hurdles hurdles, a time that currently ranks 13th in the nation. The mark was the third-best in program annals and it just missed Will Vese's standard by six one-hundredths of a second. The Tyler native went on to clock a 13.88 in winning the seven-man final by a half second.
Meanwhile, the women were paced by sophomore Stacia Newton and freshman Jhorden Hunter.
Newton, who won a pair of events, opened her daily double with a 143-4 (43.69m) measurement in the discus and and she followed that effort with a 42-5 ½ (12.94m) in the shot put an hour-and-a-half later. The discus title was the first of her two-year career, while the shot crown was her second.
Hunter made a successful season debut in the 100m. The Missouri City native clocked an 11.64 in the second of four preliminary heats, a time that put her fourth on the program's all-time performer's chart, and it was the fastest in the 27-woman field. She improved that mark by four one-hundredths of a second (11.60) en route to gold in the final and she moved to the top of the league standings (25th nationally).
