SAN ANTONIO — For the first time in school history, UTSA will host the Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which will be held on Thursday-Sunday, May 12-15, at Park West Athletics Complex (8000 N Loop 1604 W).
Tickets are $10 for adults (ages 18 and up) and $5 for youth (ages 3-17) each day beginning on Friday. Admission on Thursday is free. Parking is available at no cost in the lot located on Kyle Seale Parkway immediately south of the facility.
The Roadrunners will compete against league foes Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, UTEP and WKU on both the men's and women's side, with Florida Atlantic, Marshall and UAB only having a women's team.
UTSA is under the leadership of Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Aaron Fox, a veteran of the UTSA staff since 2000 who is in his 14th year overseeing both the men's and women's programs.
The four-day meet will get underway on Thursday with the women's heptathlon starting at 2:45 p.m., followed shortly by the first event in the men's decathlon at 3:15 p.m.
Friday's action will kick off at 2 p.m. with the men's hammer throw and continue with the second day of the heptathlon and decathlon, as well as the women's hammer at 4:30 p.m. and the 10,000-meter races that night.
On Saturday, field events are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and running events at 5:30 p.m. Sunday's field events also will begin at 1 p.m. with the running finals slated for a 6 p.m. start.
Men's Preview
UTSA will enter the C-USA Outdoor Championships with 20 marks that rank in the top eight in the conference, headlined by a trio of league leaders.
UTSA boasts the top 4x100-meter relay time in the conference with a school-record time of 39.34 seconds registered by the quartet of Dennis Phillips, Diego Pettorossi, Trevion McCalla and Jose Garcia in winning the UTSA Invitational in March. That foursome also crossed first in the University/College Division one week later at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays with a 39.95 clocking.
Bashiru Abdullahi raced to gold in the 60m hurdles at the C-USA Indoor in February and the junior enters the outdoor meet as the favorite in the 110m hurdles. The Nigeria native sped to a league-leading 13.65 at the Mt. SAC Relays and he also won the event at the 44 Farms Team Invitational in April with a 13.75.
Jemuel Miller boasts the league's top mark in the triple jump with a measurement of 15.95 meters (52-4) posted in finishing fourth in the top division at the Texas Relays. The true freshman from Barbados earned first-team All-America accolades with a sixth-place finish indoors, skipping to a school-record mark of 16.17m (53-0.75) after striking gold in the event at the C-USA Championships.
UTSA is deep in the horizontal jumps with six marks in the top eight combined in the long and triple jumps. Grant Szalek, a five-time conference medalist, is second behind Miller in the triple with a season-best mark of 15.63m (51-3.5). Jack Turner and Christiaan Le Roux stand third (7.52m/24-8.25) and fourth (7.49m/24-7), respectively, in the long jump, while Miller is sixth (7.28m/23-10.75) and Joel McFarlane ranks eighth (7.17m/23-6.25).
Turner and McFarlane also are expected to contend for the decathlon crown this week. Turner is the defending champion after scoring a UTSA-record 7,659 points a year ago, while McFarlane — who owns the league's third-best total of 6,409 despite not finishing the event at the 44 Farms Team Invitational last month — was the 2021 C-USA runner-up with 7,148 points.
Jonathan Barraza enters the meet with the league's fourth-highest clearance in the pole vault (4.92m/16-1.75), while Szalek ranks seventh in the high jump (2.02m/6-7.5).
In the sprints, Garcia, McCalla and Pettorossi each rank in the top nine in both the 100m and 200m. Pettorossi is fourth in the 200m (20.90) and sixth in the 100m (10.36), while Garcia is eighth in each event (10.42/21.14). McCalla stands sixth in the deuce (20.99) and ninth in the 100m (10.46), and Brice Chabot's season-best time of 21.17 gives UTSA four in the top nine in the 200m.
Mike Roth and Logan Masters rank third (47.38) and sixth (48.23), respectively, in the 400m and they have helped the 4x400m relay clock the fourth-fastest time in the league, a 3:15.24 posted at Texas Relays.
Jorge Ayala will carry into the meet the conference's fifth-best mark (16.64m/54-7.25) in the shot put, while Paul Bouey ranks ninth in both the shot (16.32m/53-6.5) and discus (50.17m/164-7).
UTSA has captured six conference outdoor championships and has finished in the top three in nine of the last 11 meets. The Roadrunners won the C-USA Outdoor title in each of their first two years in the league in 2013 and 2014, and they also finished atop the Southland Conference team standings in 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
The Roadrunners finished sixth last year on the strength of six podium finishes, headlined by Turner's record-setting performance in the decathlon.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 71 conference crowns with 17 coming as a member of C-USA.
Women's Preview
UTSA will enter the C-USA Outdoor Championships armed with 21 marks that rank in the conference's top eight, including five that stand atop the league's latest descending order list.
The Roadrunners tote the top marks in both horizontal jumps.
Ingeborg Gruenwald, who collected second-team All-America honors in the long jump in March and captured the C-USA Indoor crown with a school-record performance in February, leads the league in the event with a leap of 6.42m (21-0.75).
Meanwhile, All-American Danielle Spence paces the league in the triple jump with a wind-illegal 13.51m (44-4) in finishing second at Mt. SAC Relays.
Oreoluwa Adamson and Sigrid Kleive stand fifth (6.06m/19-10.75) and seventh (5.98m/19-4), respectively in the long jump, while Kleive also ranks eighth in the high jump (1.67m/5-5.75).
Lacee Barnes will enter the meet with C-USA's top mark in the discus, a throw of 51.67m (169-6) that bettered her own UTSA record. The senior from the Cayman Islands also ranks second in the league in the shot put with a personal-best mark of 15.53m (50-11.5) at the Roadrunner Invitational in March after earning the bronze medal in the event at the C-USA Indoor with a 14.86m (48-9) effort.
UTSA boasts more depth in the throws, as school record holder Marilis Remmel will enter the meet with the fourth-best mark in the javelin with a throw of 47.06m (154-5) from the Mt. SAC Relays after collecting the bronze medal at the conference meet one year ago. Kleive ranks sixth with a 44.29m (145-4) measurement from the UTSA Invitational.
Acacia Astwood is seventh in the hammer with a season-best throw of 56.27m (184-7) and Zoe Shanklin owns the seventh-best shot put (14.39m/47-2.5).
Maren Wilms has registered the league's best total in the heptathlon with her 4,826-point performance at the 44 Farms Team Invitational.
On the track, Alanah Yukich leads C-USA in the 400m hurdles with a season-best time of 58.10 posted at the Beach Invitational last month. The reigning silver medalist in the event also boasts the third-fastest time in the league in the 400m with a personal best 54.50 logged at the Alumni Muster in her last outing. The Perth, Australia, stands ninth in the 100m hurdles with her winning time of 13.98 at the Roadrunner Invitational.
Marie Duvigneau, a first-year quarter-miler from France, ranks close behind Yukich in the 400m with the fourth-best time on the circuit, a 54.73 posted at the Mt. SAC Relays.
Yukich and Duvigneau also helped the 4x400m relay team — along with Creshaun Cresser and Mackenzie Grimes — record the conference's sixth-fastest time this year, a 3:48.07 from the UTSA Invitational.
Thennelle Williams enters the week with the fourth-best time in the 100m when she sped to an 11.66 clocking at the Alumni Muster, while Grimes ranks seventh in the 400m hurdles with a 1:00.45 effort.
In the distances, Maddie Boswell ranks in the top five in a pair of events. The senior transfer clocked the conference's fourth-fastest time in the 10,000m with a 34:31.11 at the Mt. SAC Relays and the Fort Worth native owns the fifth-best clocking in the 5,000m with a 16:42.99 from the Texas Relays.
Williams joined forces with Ibiso David-West, Geraldy Barron and Vera Chinedu to clock a 46.07 in the 4x100m at the Alumni Muster for the sixth-fastest time in the conference this season.
UTSA has captured five conference outdoor titles, with all five coming during a six-year stretch from 1992 to 1997 in the Southland Conference. The Roadrunners have placed fourth or higher 14 times, including runner-up finishes in 1995 and 2012.
The Roadrunners registered the program's top finish at the C-USA Outdoor Championships by finishing third with 106.75 points last year in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Individually, UTSA has claimed 66 conference outdoor crowns all-time, including five as a member of C-USA.
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