The UTSA track and field team traveled to College Station last weekend to compete at the Charlie Thomas Invitational hosted by Texas A&M. The two-day event saw UTSA returning to the Alamo City with 13 top-10 finishes, with four Roadrunners stepping onto the podium.

The men’s team finished fifth overall at the meet. Diego Pettorossi crossed the finish line in the 200-meter race in fifth with a time of 21.30 for UTSA’s first top-10 showing. Dennis Phillips crossed next for the Roadrunners at 21.39 for a 10th place spot on the leaderboard. The distance medley relay team of Victor Chara, Daniel Morales, Michael Paredes and JD Corona timed a 10:19.30 race, only three seconds behind Stephen F. Austin’s sixth-place team. 

After the mid-distance showings, the field event Roadrunners made their campaign. Christiaan Le Roux continues to lead UTSA in the sand with a fifth-place long jump of 7.23m. Le Roux was edged out by Abilene Christian’s William Harris, who recorded a 7.29 jump for fourth-place. A double podium feature in the triple jump saw Jemuel Miller and Grant Szalek in first and third place, respectively. Miller brought home the gold for UTSA with a 15.59m leap. Szalek earned a bronze for his 14.92m jump. Nathan Crawford-Wallis of Prairie View A&M was sandwiched between the Roadrunners with a second-place jump of 15.23m. 

The women’s team secured a top-10 finish as well at eighth-place. Maddie Boswell clocked a time of 9:45.53 in the 3,000-meter race to earn a sixth-place spot. Boswell was four seconds behind fifth-place Niki Narayani from Vanderbilt. Abby Balli crossed the finish line in the 3,000 meters at 9:51.42 for ninth-place. 

Kicking off the field events for the women, Sigrid Kleive leapt over the high jump bar, clearing 1.60m for a six-way tie for seventh-place. Kleive was 0.08m from Angel Richmore of Stephen F. Austin in sixth-place. After her record-breaking leap earlier this season, Gruenwald broke her own school record at this meet by landing a gold medal long jump of 6.35m. Gruenwald was nearly a meter in front of second-place Samiyah Samuels who measured a 5.85m jump. Oreoluwa Adamson landed a 5.68m sixth-place long jump. Danielle Spence earned a bronze medal in the triple jump. Spence skipped 12.56m for a podium finish. Lacee Barnes gave UTSA another top-10 finish by throwing a 14.44m toss in the shot put to finish the meet in seventh-place.

The Roadrunners will return to competition at the Conference USA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Al. on Feb. 19 and 20. Following the C-USA championships, qualified athletes will compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Al. on March 11 and 12 before the start of the outdoor spring season with a home meet on March 18.