BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Marking the 21st consecutive year with a top-3 conference finish, the UTSA track & field teams wrapped up the program’s first American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships on Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex. Closing out a successful inaugural appearance, the Roadrunners notched 12 scoring performances, including five more medals earned – bringing the weekend’s hardware total to 10. In addition, UTSA athletes garnered two of the meet’s top honors from officials at the conference office, as Ida Breigan was named Women’s Freshman of the Year and Gabriel Binion was one of three named Men’s Most Valuable Performer.
A junior from Sydney, Australia, Binion carried over his success from Friday and completed his sweep of horizontal jumps during the final field event of Saturday’s final competition. Going straight to the gold on his second jump, Binion hit 15.77m (51-9.0) to win the triple jump, adding to his gold in the long jump to make way for his Men’s MVP accolades.
The Roadrunners swept the long jump medals on Friday and came up just one shy for the triple, as junior Dylan James (Perth, Australia) captured another medal for his cache with a third-place mark of 15.38m (50-5.5) on both his fifth and sixth passes.
Named the Women’s Freshman of the Year, Breigan (Fredrikstad, Norway) entered the meet as the clear No. 1 after breaking the American Athletic Conference long jump record in every competition of her rookie season. She fought off stiff competition in Friday’s final to set the AAC Meet record, while extending her UTSA, AAC and Norwegian Indoor national records to 6.58m (21-7.25) with the third-best jump in the NCAA.
Junior Mike Roth (St. Thomas, Ontario) got the Roadrunners started on the medal stand Saturday, securing the silver with a 46.44 clocking in the 400-meter final. Classmate Brice Chabot (Smithville, Texas) followed up quickly with a silver medal in the 200-meter final on a time of 21.01, while Roth chipped three more points into the UTSA pot with a sixth-place finish in 21.35.
The Roadrunners added their fifth medal in the final event of the weekend, as the men's 4x400m relay squad of Martín Kouyoumdjian, Noah Rhodes, Nabil Tezkratt and Roth collected a 3:11.44 for UTSA’s all-time third-best time and the silver medal.
In addition, junior Thennelle Williams added points on the women’s side with a fourth-place 60-meter finish in 7.43 seconds, while senior Ayumi Kobayashi also score with a personal-best 8.49 clocking to earn sixth in the 60-meter hurdles.
For the throws, senior Paul Bouey hit 15.74m (51-7.75) and junior Michael Campbell was at 15.44m (50-8.0), as the pair went back-to-back at fifth and sixth in the men’s shot put.
Capturing three points on the distance side, sophomore Victor Charo notched a career-best 1:52.14 in the 800-meter to finish sixth.
A day after competing in the pentathlon, freshman Edlin Laur opened the day putting UTSA on the scoreboard with a seventh-place 1.69m (5-6.50) height in the women’s high jump.
The Roadrunner men soared to a third-place finish with 80 points in the program's first AAC Championship, running behind conference champion South Florida (156 points) and Charlotte (105.5 points). On the women’s side, UTSA collected 31 points to finish in 11th, while Charlotte claimed the title with 107 points.
Qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships will be headed to The Track at New Balance in Boston for the Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 competition. The rest of the Roadrunners will turn their attention to the coming outdoor season, which kicks off in the friendly confines of the Park West Athletics Complex, as the Roadrunners host the UTSA Invitational, Friday, March 15 to Saturday, March 16.
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