SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men’s and women’s track and field teams kick off the indoor track and field championship season on Friday with the opening of the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships. The conference meet will take place at the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Alabama, for the ninth consecutive championship at the site. The Championships will begin competing with multi-events at 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 28, and run through the 3:30 p.m. awards ceremony on Saturday, March 1.
Keeping up with the action
The Championships will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Noah Frary and Kelly Burke on the call, as well as Maria Trivelpiece as the trackside reporter. Friday’s broadcast will begin at 1:00 p.m.: Day 1. Saturday’s broadcast will resume at 12 p.m.: Day 2. Live results will be posted as available throughout the meet on AthleticLive.
Roadrunners at the AAC Indoor Championships
The Roadrunners’ party of 43 student-athletes (23 men, 20 women) will begin competition with the opening event, as Mia Lien, Edlin Laur and Madelen Sveinungsen begin their journey in the pentathlon at 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 28. With her 4,045 points at No. 2 in the UTSA history books, Lien ranks second in the conference, her season best just 38 points behind 2024 runner-up, Wichita State’s Destiny Masters. With 3,580 points, Laur also ranks 10th coming into the weekend. The first five events of the men’s heptathlon will follow at 11:30 a.m., featuring newcomers Harry Jääger and Finn O’Neill. Notching 4,496 points at Texas A&M, Jääger is seventh in the standings heading to his first championship.
At 2 p.m. on Friday, UTSA’s bread-and-butter event opens up, the women’s long jump – in which the Roadrunners have ranked top-10 nationally the entire season and are currently seventh. A potential big point-earner for the Roadrunners, the unit is led by defending AAC Indoor Champion and conference record-holder Ida Breigan, who again tops the conference and ranks 13th nationally at 6.50m (21-4) after finishing sixth as an All-American at last year’s NCAAs. Sitting at third in the conference standings, newcomer Brina Likar is third at 6.13m (20-1.5), former All-American Oreolewa Adamson is fourth at 6.12m (20-1) and grad transfer Rachela Pace is 10th at 5.96m (19-6.75). Also a potential point-generator, the men’s long jump is set for 4 p.m., paced by senior Christiaan Le Roux with an AAC-second 7.70m (25-3.25) career best, just ahead of Dylan James in a tie for fourth at 7.44m (24-5) and defending champion and 2024 AAC Field Most Valuable Performer Gabriel Binion, topping at 7.26m (23-10) in ninth.
The throws commence at 2:15 p.m. with the men’s weight throw, and senior Michael Campbell coming in at second with a career-best 20.30m (66-7.25) this season, just .4m off the lead position. Transfer Garrett Stokes is also at sixth with an 18.93m (62-1.25) measurement. The women’s weight throw will close up the field events for the day at 4:15 p.m., as transfer Nyaluet Diew comes into her first AAC Championships ranked seventh with a mark of 17.71m (58-1.25).
Running events start with the women’s mile at 1:05 p.m. and the first appearance in the meet for Jadelyn Malesich. The 400m prelim follows for UTSA, with the field paced by transfer and UTSA record-holder Shadae Findley at 53.29 seconds, along with Ibiso David-West, Fatoumata Kabo and Nayanna Dubarry-Gay. The men’s quarter-mile prelim follows, the Roadrunners led by 2024 AAC runner-up Mike Roth in fifth with a season-best time of 47.25. Also shooting for the next round, AJ Breault, Martín Kouyoumdjian, Noah Rhodes, Hugo Menin and Matthew Mills are in the lineup for the quarter mile.
The men’s 60m hurdles follow at 2:05 p.m. with Zane Hodges and Charlie Staddon, just ahead of the women’s 60m hurdles. In the women’s conference standings, freshman Selma Ims ranks seventh with a school-record 8.41-second mark, joined in the event by rookie Kyla Hill.
Thennelle Williams, Kiah Dubarry-Gay and Leah Smith take up the women’s 60m and dual-sport athlete Will Henderson III looks to improve on his 6.79 debut on the men’s side.
With the bulk of the remaining first day going to distance, the men’s 800m trials are set for 3:05 p.m., paced by junior Victor Charo with a school historic second-best 1:51.26 clocking, competing alongside rookies Cortlin Salge and Gabe Tubbs.
The lone sprint break in the late lineup is the 200m preliminary with the women leading off with Williams, Hill, K. Dubarry-Gay and Smith looking to advance.
The men’s distance medley relay will hem up the first day of competition, with UTSA’s quartet of Charo, Mills, Salge and OJ Ruiz making their debut as a relay squad at 5:40 p.m.
The final three events of the men’s heptathlon open competition for Saturday, March 1, at 9:15 a.m., while the field events open with the women’s high jump at 10:15 a.m. Lien has a conference-leading 1.81m (5-11.25) school-record height on the books, while Laur sits in a tie for fifth at 1.72m (5-7.25) and Sveinungsen will also be vying for points.
The men’s shot put sets out at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, the Roadrunners led by Campbell at ninth in the pre-meet conference standings on a 16.37m (53-8.5) measurement, joined in action by Stokes and Ryan Stillman. Diew tops the women’s conference standings with a 15.87m (52-1) measurement and the women’s portion is set for 1:15 p.m.
With a Roadrunner, Pace, sitting in second on the standings list at 13.02 (42-8.75) and representing UTSA’s No. 2 historic mark, the women’s triple jump gets under way at 11:45 a.m. Midyear newcomer Mifri Veso is also eighth in the rankings at 12.03m (39-5.75) and Adamson will look to deliver a mark like the one that gave her the Conference USA silver two years ago (12.80m). On the men’s side, James finished third at last year’s meet and is second in the conference performances on a 15.59m (51-1.75) leap, while defending champion Binion is also seeking a performance at his potential, like the 15.77m measurement that awarded him the title in 2024. The men’s triple jump concludes the meet’s field events, starting at 1:45 p.m.
On the track, running events begin with the mile final at 12:15 p.m., followed by a two-section 400m final at 12:25 p.m. The short track finals, 60m hurdles and 60m are next on the schedule at 12:45 p.m., followed by finals for the 800m and 200m. The final individual race of the meet is the 3,000m with the women set for a 2:35 p.m. start for Malesich. Competing in the subsequent men’s race is Ruiz.
Wrapping up the meet in typical fashion will be the 4x400m relays, UTSA is seeded at 3:39.18 at No. 2, sending the quartet of Ims, Findley, Kiah Dubarry-Gay and Breigan. The men’s squad of Breault, Kouyoumdjian, Menin and Roth are set to conclude the meet.
The awards ceremony is set for 3:30 p.m.
Up Next
Following this weekend’s American Athletic Conference Championships, the top 16 national individuals and top 12 relay teams will qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships, set for March 14-15 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia. The next move for the Roadrunners not at nationals is turning attention to the outdoor season and UTSA’s lone home meet – the UTSA Invitational, held March 21-22 at the Park West Athletics Complex.
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