SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA track & field teams are sending 18 Roadrunner student-athletes to the next level of the postseason this week, preparing for competition at University of Arkansas’ John McDonnell Field for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships West First Round, contested Wednesday to Saturday, May 22-25.
Men's competition will take place on Wednesday and Friday and the women will compete on Thursday and Saturday for the right to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The top 12 finishers in each event will move on to the national meet on June 5-8 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
Meet Information
NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships West First Round
Location: John McDonnell Field, Fayetteville, Ark.
Meet Information Website
Live Results Link (all events)
Tickets
ESPN+ Links: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
The 12 UTSA men heading to Fayetteville will represent the Roadrunners in eight different events, paced by Gabriel Binion, Brice Chabot and Nabil Tezkratt, who will each compete in three events each. Chabot will take on the 100-meter and 200-meter, in addition to the 4x100-meter relay, making his third career appearance at the Regional. Taking his second turn at the NCAA postseason, Binion will join him on the relay and then compete in both the long jump and triple jump. Joining the pair, the East London, England rookie Tezkratt will make his NCAA debut on both the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays, individually competing in the 400-meter.
Leading the party in the rankings, Bridgetown, Barbados junior Jemuel Miller delivered the fifth-best triple jump measurement in the West on only his second jump of the entire year at the Texas Invitational via a school-record 16.21m (53-2.25) mark. Looking for his second trip to the NCAA finals in three years, Miller just earned silver at the American Athletic Conference Championships and leads a four-man UTSA triple jump squad that ranks third among all DI programs. Joining Miller in Fayetteville, Round Rock, Texas junior Jacob Jenkins earned third place at the AAC Championships on his fourth-attempt career-best 15.83m (51-11.25), ranking 12th in the West. A junior from Sydney, Australia, Binion leapt an outdoor-best 15.66m (51-4.5) for fourth at AAC’s and 21st in the West, while his countryman from Perth, Dylan James hit an outdoor best of 15.57m (51-1) for AAC fifth place and 27th in this First Round ranking. James is yet another repeat qualifier for the Roadrunners.
Chabot enters the meet with the 12th-fastest time in the 200m field at 20.49, but reached 20.44 for the school record last season. A Smithville, Texas junior, Chabot also ranks 24th in the 100m (10.24) while earning bronze in the finals at the AAC Championships. However, he registered a wind-aided 9.99 earlier this season to become only the second Roadrunner to break the 10-second barrier. After hitting a career-best 20.52 during the AAC 200m preliminary, St. Thomas, Ontario junior Mike Roth is 15th in the field.
The Roadrunners’s squad would be deeper in both sprints, but senior Dennis Phillips suffered a season-ending injury during the AAC meet. He would tie for eighth (10.13) in the 100m field and 16th (20.54) in the 200m. Phillips was also the anchor of the 4x100m relay and an alternate on the 4x400m, forcing UTSA to make some lineup adjustments for this week’s competition. The 4x100, with Binion, Tezkratt and Chabot will add either freshmen Oliver Swinney or Martín Kouyoumdjian, and enter the meet with a fifth-seeded 38.89-second standard.
Tezkratt will represent UTSA in the 400m individually, toting a career-best 46.53 for 44th in the field. The 4x400m squad of Kouyoumdjian, Noah Rhodes, Tezkratt and Roth checks in at 20th in the West on a time of 3:07.3 from their victory at the 96th annual Texas Relays.
In opening-day action for the men, Roodepoort, South Africa junior Christiaan Le Roux also enters the long jump competition at a 17th-ranked career-best 7.80m (25-7.25), while Binion is 24th with an outdoor-best 7.76m (25-5.5) from the Texas Invitational.
Rounding out the men’s group, Silver Spring, Md. senior Jabari Bennett will represent UTSA’s throwing men, heading into the week at 40th in the West in shot put on a career-best 17.89m (58-8.5) mark at The American Championships.
UTSA Men's 2024 NCAA West First Round Declared Qualifiers
|
Name |
Event |
Mark |
Rank |
Day |
Time (CT) |
|
Shot Put |
17.89 |
40 |
Wed. |
7 p.m. |
|
|
Long Jump |
7.76m |
24 |
Wed. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
Triple Jump |
15.66m |
21 |
Fri. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
100m |
10.24 |
24 |
Wed. |
7 p.m. |
|
|
200m |
20.49 |
12 |
Wed. |
8:45 p.m. |
|
|
Triple Jump |
15.57m |
27 |
Fri. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
Triple Jump |
15.83m |
12 |
Fri. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
Long Jump |
7.80m |
17 |
Wed. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
Triple Jump |
16.21m |
5 |
Fri. |
6 p.m. |
|
|
200m |
20.52 |
15 |
Wed. |
8:45 p.m. |
|
|
400m |
46.53 |
44 |
Wed. |
7:25 p.m. |
|
|
UTSA |
4x100m Relay |
38.89 |
5 |
Fri. |
5 p.m. |
|
UTSA |
4x400m Relay |
3:07.30 |
20 |
Fri. |
8:45 p.m. |
Pacing the six Roadrunners in six events from the women’s squad, Fredrikstad, Norway rookie Ida Breigan already has one All-American honor under her belt after finishing sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She reached as high as No. 1 nationally during the outdoor season. Breigan finished second at the AACs in the long jump and is ranked fifth in the West field on a career-best and school-record leap of 6.74m (22-1.5) at the Beach Invitational in April.
Her classmate from Talinn, Estonia, Edlin Laur is tied for 14th in the high jump field after cresting a school-record 1.82m (5-11.5) during the heptathlon at the Bobcat Invitational in late March. Laur finished fourth at AAC in the individual high jump after working her way through the heptathlon over the first two days.
Making her second appearance at an NCAA first round, St. Catherine, Jamaica junior Thennelle Williams will take on two events, the 200m and the 100m. Williams ranks 25th in the West in the 200m with a UTSA all-time No. 2 time of 23.21. She’s also coming into the week at 46th in the 100m on a clocking of 11.47 at the Texas Relays. Williams will be joined in the 200m by first-year Romford, England transfer Kiah Dubarry-Gay, who is 41st in the field at 23.47 – ranking fourth on UTSA’s all-time list.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Funabashi, Japan senior Ayumi Kobayashi enters with a time of 13.41 from the Texas Invitational and ranking 41st. She’s third on UTSA’s all-time list and making her first NCAA postseason appearance after earning fourth at AACs. Representing the Roadrunner women’s throwers in the hammer, Goldie, Australia senior Isabella Simonelli is 45th in the rankings with a 58.06m (190-6) measurement at the UTSA Invitational. She’s second in UTSA’s history and making her inaugural NCAA appearance.
UTSA Women's 2024 NCAA West First Round Declared Qualifiers
|
Name |
Event |
Mark |
Rank |
Day |
Time (CT) |
|
Long Jump |
6.74m |
5 |
Thu. |
3 p.m. |
|
|
200m |
23.47 |
41 |
Thu. |
5:45 p.m. |
|
|
100m Hurdles |
13.41 |
41 |
Thu. |
3 p.m. |
|
|
High Jump |
1.82m |
15 |
Sat. |
2 p.m. |
|
|
Hammer |
58.06m |
45 |
Thu. |
8:30 a.m. |
|
|
100m |
11.47 |
46 |
Thu. |
4 p.m. |
|
|
200m |
23.21 |
25 |
Thu. |
5:45 p.m. |
-UTSA-