SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men's track & field team will be in search of its 13th indoor or outdoor league title under the direction of 15th-year head coach Aaron Fox this weekend when it competes at the Conference USA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. The two-day meet is scheduled to get underway on Saturday morning at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
Day one action will get underway at 9 a.m. with the first four events of the heptathlon and other opening day competition will include the high jump (2 p.m.), pole vault and weight throw (both at 4 p.m.) and long jump (6:30 p.m.). The preliminary heats of all the running events also are scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. with the exception of the 5,000 meters (7:55 p.m.) and distance medley relay (8:40 p.m.) finals, which will conclude the first day competition. The remainder of the field events (triple jump/shot put) and all running finals will take place beginning at 11 a.m. the following day (click here the complete meet schedule).
If the current conference standings are any indication, the Roadrunners are poised to make a strong run at this year's league crown.
UTSA comes into the postseason meet with conference-leading marks in three events and it owns another half dozen that rank among the top three in the circuit.
Leading the way is sophomore Patrick Prince, who sits atop the league's 60-meter hurdles leaderboard with his career-best time of 7.86, which came two weeks ago at the Armory Invitational in New York City. Prince's time also ranks 23rd in the nation heading into this weekend.
Kelsey Benoit (shot put/57-9 ½/17.61m) and Adrian Riley (heptathlon/4,951 points) also rank first in the league in their respective events.
UTSA has captured a total of eight indoor conference team crowns and 75 individual/relay championships in program history.
The Roadrunners led through the first 14 scored events, but defending champion Western Kentucky made a late charge and then held off UTSA to successfully defend its C-USA Championship a year ago by a score of 135-120.
Conference USA