SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA track & field squads get a home field advantage this week in the Roadrunners’ inaugural appearance at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. In their first year in the league, the Roadrunners will host the 14-team championship event on the Class 1 IAAF-Certified surface at the Park West Athletics Complex, Friday-Sunday, May 10-12, with the entire meet broadcast live on ESPN+.
The meet’s appearance in San Antonio marks only the second time that the championship has been held in the state of Texas – the last was 2017 in Houston. It also marks the first time in five years that the championship will be held outside of Tampa, Fla. or Wichita, Kan.
Meet and Fan Information
Location: Park West Athletics Complex (8000 TX-1604 Loop, San Antonio, TX 78249)
AAC Championship Homepage
Live Results Link (all events)
Tickets
ESPN+ Links: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
The Roadrunners will see 47 athletes take their shot in Championship contention, while UTSA enters the weekend with 21 UTSA men’s and 16 UTSA women’s marks listed among the American Athletic Conference top-10 of their respective events.
In their first appearance in the conference championships slate this year, the Roadrunners’ men finished third at the AAC Indoor Championships in February in Alabama, while the women were 11th. On this weekend last season in Denton, the UTSA men finished second and the women were third in the Roadrunners’ final appearance at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships.
UTSA produced seven individual winners among 17 medal-worthy performances at the 2023 CUSA Championships. Highlighting returning victors from that meet, Mike Roth (junior, St. Thomas, Ontario) topped the men’s 400-meter field with a 46.80 clocking, Christiaan Le Roux (junior, Roodepoort, South Africa) won the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.63m (25-0.5) on his third attempt and Dylan James (junior, Perth, Australia) went 15.49m (50-10.0) to earn gold in the men’s triple jump.
Leading the American Athletic Conference standings, the Roadrunners are looking for a big leap in the women’s long jump from Fredrikstad, Norway freshman and Indoor First Team All-American Ida Breigan. Breigan tops the league by .35 meters and currently ranks fourth in the national standings with her 6.74m (22-1.5) school-record measurement from the Beach Invitational last month. The Roadrunners may not have the current leader on the men’s side of the event, but Sydney, Australia junior Gabriel Binion is the reigning AAC Indoor Champion in both the long jump and triple jump. In addition, Le Roux paces four Roadrunners in the AAC top-10, sitting at third with a 7.80m (25-7.25) mark, ahead of Binion in fourth (7.76m), James in fifth (7.64m) and Jacob Jenkins (junior, Round Rock, Texas) in ninth. The long jump event squad ranks seventh in the NCAA.
Previous All-American and Bridgetown, Barbados junior Jemuel Miller is only two jumps deep into this year’s triple jump performances, but still deep enough to set a new UTSA record and move to the top of the AAC standings with a 16.21m (53-2.25) measurement at the Texas Invitational two weeks ago. He leads an event squad that has ranked second in the NCAA for four consecutive weeks – a big Roadrunner scoring opportunity, as UTSA also lists Jenkins at third (15.68m), Binion at fourth (15.53m) and James in fifth (15.46m).
Smithville, Texas junior Brice Chabot has a pair of outstanding scoring chances alongside Little Elm, Texas senior Dennis Phillips, squaring off with elite sprint competition. Chabot became only the second Roadrunner to break 10 seconds in the 100-meter, logging a wind-aided 9.99 at the Beach Invitational, just shy of South Florida’s Saminu Abdul-Rasheed and his wind-aided 9.95. Phillips is third in the standings with a career-best 10.12 seconds. The pair also go third (Chabot, 20.49) and fifth (Phillips, 20.54) in the AAC 200-meter list and are the middle legs on UTSA’s AAC-second 4x100-meter relay at 39.72 seconds. Still gaining momentum in the long sprints, East London, England freshman Nabil Tezkratt is fourth in the 400-meter standings at 46.53, just ahead of Roth in sixth at 46.59 – they also represent the final two legs of UTSA’s league-second 4x400-meter relay that rallied on Roth’s anchor to win the 96th Texas Relays, combining with Martin Kouyoumdjian and Noah Rhodes for a 3:07.30.
In the women’s sprints, the Roadrunners have St. Catherine, Jamaica junior Thennelle Williams entering the weekend in seventh for both the 100m (11.47) and 200m (23.50), while Ballymena, Northern Ireland’s Lauren Roy is ninth in the 100m (11.57) and 10th in the 200m (23.69). Romford, England senior Kiah Dubarry-Gay is also eighth in the 200m at 23.59.
After finishing fourth at last year’s CUSA Championships, Funabashi, Japan senior Ayumi Kobayashi has knocked .59 seconds off her 100-meter hurdles time and ranks fourth in the AAC at 13.41 seconds.
Coming into the meet in second among heptathletes, Talinn, Estonia freshman Edlin Laur racked up 5,288 points at the Bobcat Invitational to rank second in the conference, securing top-10 individual event marks in the high jump (third, 1.82m) and long jump (seventh, 5.98m) this season.
In women’s throws, Goldie, Australia senior Isabella Simonelli’s 58.06m (190-6) in the hammer throw is second in the UTSA all-time marks and second in the AAC standings, while she also sixth in the discus at 47.07m (154-5). Women’s shot-putters Amaya King (15.38m) and Zoe Shanklin (14.93m) are back-to-back at fifth and sixth coming into the championships. On the men’s side, Bloomfield, Conn. senior Michael Campbell sits at sixth in the shot put (16.37m) and seventh in the hammer (55.86m).
On the distance side, Abilene, Texas sophomore Victor Charo has sliced over seven seconds off his half mile since 2022 and sits at sixth in the league with a 1:50.94 clocking in the 800-meter. Opening up the meet early on Friday, local senior Sabrina Goains is 10th in the women’s 10,000-meter with a time of 38:42.49.
2024 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships
CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE (All times are Central)
FRIDAY, MAY 10 – ESPN+
Field Events
11:00 a.m. - Women's Hammer Throw
1:00 p.m. - Men's Hammer Throw
3:00 p.m. - Women's Javelin
5:00 p.m. - Men's Javelin
Heptathlon
11:00 a.m. - 100m Hurdles
11:40 a.m. - High Jump
1:30 p.m. - Shot Put
2:30 p.m. - 200m Dash
Decathlon
10:30 a.m. - 100m Dash
11:10 a.m. - Long Jump
12:10 p.m. - Shot Put
1:15 p.m. - High Jump
2:30 p.m. - 400m Dash
Track Events
7:30 a.m. - Women's 10,000m Run (FINAL)
8:15 a.m. - Men's 10,000m Run (FINAL)
6:30 p.m. - Women's 1500m Run (TRIALS)
6:45 p.m. - Men's 1500m Run (TRIALS)
7:00 p.m. - Women's 200m Dash (TRIALS)
7:15 p.m. - Women's 200m Dash (TRIALS)
7:30 p.m. - Women's 400m Hurdles (TRIALS)
7:40 p.m. - Men's 400m Hurdles (TRIALS)
SATURDAY, MAY 11 | ESPN+
Field Events
3:00 p.m. - Women's Long Jump
3:30 p.m. - Women's Shot Put
4:30 p.m. - Women's Pole Vault
5:00 p.m. - Men's Long Jump
5:30 p.m. - Men's Shot Put
Heptathlon
11:00 a.m. - Long Jump
1:00 p.m. - Javelin
2:30 p.m. - 800m Run
Decathlon
10:30 a.m. - 110m Hurdles
11:20 a.m. - Discus
12:30 p.m. - Pole Vault
3:30 p.m. - Javelin
5:00 p.m. - 1500m Run
Track Events
5:25 p.m. - Women's 100m Hurdles (TRIALS)
5:45 p.m. - Men's 110m Hurdles (TRIALS)
6:00 p.m. - Women's 800m Run (TRIALS)
6:15 p.m. - Men's 800m Run (TRIALS)
6:30 p.m. - Women's 400m Dash (TRIALS)
6:45 p.m. - Men's 400m Dash (TRIALS)
7:00 p.m. - Women's 100m Dash (TRIALS)
7:15 p.m. - Men's 100m Dash (TRIALS)
7:30 p.m. - Women's 3000m Steeplechase (FINAL)
7:45 p.m. - Men's 3000m Steeplechase (FINAL)
SUNDAY, MAY 12 – ESPN+
Field Events
2:30 p.m. - Men's High Jump
2:30 p.m. - Women's Triple Jump
2:30 p.m. - Women's Discus
3:30 p.m. - Men's Pole Vault
4:30 p.m. - Women's High Jump
4:30 p.m. - Men's Triple Jump
4:30 p.m. - Men's Discus
Track Events
4:30 p.m. - Women's 400m Relay (FINAL)
4:40 p.m. - Men's 400m Relay (FINAL)
4:50 p.m. - Women's 1500m Run (FINAL)
5:00 p.m. - Men's 1500m Run (FINAL)
5:10 p.m. - Women's 100m Hurdles (FINAL)
5:20 p.m. - Men's 110m Hurdles (FINAL)
5:30 p.m. - Women's 400m Dash (FINAL)
5:35 p.m. - Men's 400m Dash (FINAL)
5:45 p.m. - Women's 100m Dash (FINAL)
5:50 p.m. - Men's 100m Dash (FINAL)
6:00 p.m. - Women's 800m Run (FINAL)
6:05 p.m. - Men's 800m Run (FINAL)
6:15 p.m. - Women's 400m Hurdles (FINAL)
6:20 p.m. - Men's 400m Hurdles (FINAL)
6:30 p.m. - Women's 200m Dash (FINAL)
6:35 p.m. - Men's 200m Dash (FINAL)
6:45 p.m. - Women's 5000m Run (FINAL)
7:10 p.m. - Men's 5000m Run (FINAL)
7:35 p.m. - Women's 1600m Relay (FINAL)
7:45 p.m. - Men's 1600m Relay (FINAL)
-UTSA-