SAN ANTONIO – Following a successful opening weekend to the 2024 indoor campaign with split squads, UTSA track & field will take its performances up I-10 for a more consolidated approach to two days of action at Houston’s Robert Platt Invitational, to be held Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at Yeoman Fieldhouse.
The meet will pit the Roadrunners against athletes from nearly 20 schools and a host of club and unattached athletes. Competing teams include: Abilene Christian, Hill College, Houston, Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, Lamar, Little Rock, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Prairie View A&M, Rice, Sam Houston, Southern Miss, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas Southern, Texas State, UT Arlington and UT Rio Grande Valley.
Competition will kick off on Friday morning with multi-events and kicking off UTSA’s meet with the women’s weight throw at 9:30 a.m., followed by the triple jump. Running events will begin at 4:00 p.m. with the distance medley relay, followed by preliminaries for the 60m hurdles, 60m dash, 400m finals and 3000m run.
Returning to action on Saturday, UTSA will get started with the shot put at 12 p.m., followed by the long jump. Running events will resume at 1:30 p.m. with the 60m and 60m hurdles semifinals, followed by the mile, 800m, 200m and closing up the meet in the evening on the 4x400m relay.
The spotlight from the opening weekend was definitely on freshman Ida Breigan, who set the UTSA, American Athletic Conference and Norwegian U23 long jump record. This meet will see her prowess on the track, taking on the 200m in her first collegiate sprint appearance – having previously won the Norwegian U17 Indoor Championship in the event.
First-year transfer Kiah Dubarry-Gay will compete in the 60m on the women’s side for the second time at UTSA, while Gabriel Green will get his first shot this year at the men’s 60m hurdles. There are plenty of scoring opportunities for the throwers, as Isabella Simonelli (WT), Zoe Shanklin (WT, SP), Amaya King (SP), Michael Campbell (WT, SP) and Paul Bouey (SP) are in action after strong medalist performances last weekend. This meet will also mark the first competition for the distance corps since cross country regionals and are expecting some solid performances.
Yeoman Fieldhouse has a six-lane, 200-meter banked oval and eight-lane straightaway for 60-meter hurdles and sprints, with two adjacent horizontal jump runaways with sand pits. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children (ages 3-12). Children under 2 are free but must sit in the lap of a parent or guardian and may not occupy a seat or obstruct the sight lines of other guests. Groups of 10 or more may purchase tickets for $5 per person.
Heat sheets, schedules, facility information and other meet information will be available from Houston Athletics. UH Athletics will provide live results from both days of competition via Flash Results Texas and live video coverage of events through Cougar All-Access.
After finishing up at the Platt Invitational, the Roadrunners will travel next week to College Station for Texas A&M’s Charlie Thomas Invitational, Friday, Feb. 2 and Saturday, Feb. 3 in the newly-minted R.A. “Murray” Fasken ’38 Indoor Track & Field facility, slated for a live broadcast on SEC Network.
- UTSA -