The UTSA track & field team brought home seven medals in their second indoor meet of the spring at the Texas Aggie Invitational on Jan. 22. The men’s team finished fifth overall, eight points away from fourth place Sam Houston, with 58 points, and the women clinched an eighth place ranking with 26 points.

The women left College Station with 10 top-10 finishes. Vera Chinedu clinched the first top finish in the 200 meters. Her time of 25.14 seconds secured the ninth-place finish for UTSA. In the 400 meters, Mackenzie Grimes finished ninth, just 0.41 seconds behind New Orleans’ Esther Nwanze. The Roadrunners claimed their first medal finish in the women’s events with a bronze finish in the 4×400-meter relay. The team consisting of Ibiso David-West, Grimes, Maren Wilms and Chinedu finished with a 3:58.77 time. Ingebord Gruenwald kicked off the women’s field events with a record-breaking long jump. Only 0.25 meters from gold, Gruenwald leapt 6.22 meters, breaking the UTSA record set in 2006. Wilms claimed an eighth place finish in the long jump with a leap of 5.48 meters, and Danielle Spence finished 10th in the event with a jump of 5.33 meters. Lacee Barnes claimed a fourth place spot in the shot put and weight throw, tossing 13.73 meters and 15.39 meters, respectively. In the final relay, UTSA won silver. The team of Creshaun Cresser, Gabriel Green, Kaylyn Landry and Elijah Frizell crossed the line at 3:45.73 in the mixed 4×400 meter relay.

The men’s team left Aggieland with 15 top-10 finishes, securing four medals for the Roadrunners. Sprinter Dennis Phillips clinched the first top-10 and medal win for the men in the 200 meters. Crossing the line at 21.29 seconds, Phillips was 0.04 seconds from Texas A&M’s Ryan Martin in second. Jose Garcia and Trevion McCalla raced a 21.34 and 21.57 for fourth and seventh places in the 200, respectively. Green claimed a top-10 finish of his own in the 60-meter hurdles with a race of 8.39 for seventh. Passing the baton, Phillips, Brice Chabot, Lirim Emerllahu and Zachary Perkins were sixth with a 3:25.75 race. Joel McFarlane was fifth in the high jump for UTSA with a leap of 1.93 meters. Christiaan Le Roux won UTSA its first gold of the meet in the long jump with a jump of 7.18 meters. Jemuel Miller leapt 6.76 meters for a fifth-place long jump finish. Following Le Roux, Miller won a gold medal in the triple jump with a bound of 15.32 meters. Grant Szalek was the second Roadrunner on the triple jump podium with a third-place jump of 14.67 meters. The throwing duo of Angel Robles and Jorge Ayala rounded out the top-10 finishes for UTSA. Robles tossed a 14.77-meter throw in the shot put for a seventh place finish. Ayala finished eighth in the shot put and weight throw with 14.37 meter and 14.85-meter throws, respectively. 

The Roadrunners will be back in action on Friday, Jan. 28 for the two-day Houston Invitational.