BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Following an exciting two days of track and field action at the 2022 Conference USA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex, Charlotte claimed the men’s team title for the third-straight year, and Southern Miss captured the women’s team competition for the second-straight season.
 
The 49ers men won the team championship with a 155.5-point total, ahead of runner-up Middle Tennessee State (94 points) and third-place (UTSA (91.5 points). Charlotte has now won the Conference USA men’s title five times (2001, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022).
 
In the women’s team competition, the Golden Eagles posted a total of 101 points, while Middle Tennessee was runner-up with 91 points and UTSA finished third (84 points).
 
Final Results (PDF):  Men  |  Women
 
Men’s Final Awards
Team Champion: Charlotte
Team Runner-Up: Middle Tennessee
Coach of the Year: Bob Olesen, Charlotte
Freshman of the Meet: Alaba Akintola, Middle Tennessee
High Point Scorer of the Meet: Alaba Akintola, Middle Tennessee
 
Women’s Final Awards
Team Champion: Southern Miss
Team Runner-Up: Middle Tennessee
Coach of the Year: Jon Stuart, Southern Miss
Freshman of the Meet: Oliwia Wawrzyniak, Southern Miss
High Point Scorer of the Meet: Eusila Chepkemei, Middle Tennessee
 
Field events began the final day of competition. Rice freshman Grant Levesque won his first C-USA heptathlon with 5,626 points along with setting the C-USA heptathlon pole vault record, clearing 5.09m. The freshman had finished second in men’s pole vault competition on Saturday, clearing 5.04m.  The men’s triple jump champion came from UTSA for the third-straight year as freshman Jemuel Miller recorded a leap of 16.09 meters on his fifth and final jump, placing him in the top 15 nationally this season. In the men’s shot put, Southern Miss sophomore Fred Moudani took first place with an 18.12-meter effort.
 
In the women’s field events, Rice freshman Josie Taylor won the C-USA title in the high jump clearing a championship meet record height of 1.86m. The mark is tied for the third highest clearance in the nation this season and the previous C-USA meet record 1.85m had been held since 2012. The shot put title was won by Rice junior Erna Gunnarsdottir for the second-straight year as she hit a mark of 16.79m. She has now finished either first or second at the meet for four-straight years. Middle Tennessee’s Esther Isa won the triple jump title for the second-straight year as well, jumping 13.48m on her fifth leap after finishing second in the high jump on Saturday.
 
The running events then took center stage and were highlighted by some record breaking and entertaining performances. Middle Tennessee senior Eusila Chepkemei became the first C-USA female to win the 800m (2:08.39), mile (4:50.13) and 3000m (9:27.25) in one meet in league history. She would go on to earn the 2022 C-USA High Point scorer of the meet as she was also a member of the gold-medal and C-USA record breaking distance medley relay (11:30.59) on Saturday night.
 
Middle Tennessee freshman Abala Akintola was named both the High Point scorer and the Freshman of the Meet on the men’s side as he won both the 60m dash (6.72) and the 200m in a blazing time of 20.72 that puts him in the top 15 nationally. The freshman also ran a leg of MT’s 4x400 meter relay that finished fifth.
 
In the men’s mile UTEP junior Kenneth Talavera earned his first C-USA title with a 4:06.81, UTEP’s first mile champion since 2018. He would go on to earn another gold medal later in the day, finishing first in the 800m with a 1:53.37.
 
UTEP senior Marciel Caicedo took the gold medal in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with an 8.36 time. The men’s 60-meter hurdle gold was captured by UTSA junior Bashiru Abdullah after he ran a C-USA meet record-tying and career-best time of 7.77.
 
In the women’s 400 meters, Marshall junior Mikah Alleyne won with a time of 53.62 seconds, the fastest time at the C-USA meet since 2018. The men’s 400 went to Southern Miss sophomore Donald Butler (47.30 seconds), who is the second-straight Southern Miss champion in the event.
 
Middle Tennessee swept the 60 meters as junior Lynnika Vance clocked a 7.43 and freshman Alaba Akintola finished in 6.72.
 
In the women’s 200 meters, Charlotte sophomore Ta-Hailia Fairman earned her first C-USA Title with her time of 23.97. 
 
In the men’s 3000 meters, Charlotte sophomore Nick Scudder won his second-straight title in the event speeding to a C-USA meeting record time of 8:00.79.
 
In the final event of the championship, Charlotte’s men’s team of Braxton Ware, Christian Palmer, Donny Lee and Kobe Nevillls, took the gold medal in the 4x400 relay, as the 49ers finished in 3:14.09. Charlotte won the 4x400 women’s champion for the third-straight year behind the team of Ta-Hailia Fairman, Aurielle Witherspoon, Ya-Sha-Rah Brathwaite and Maya Singletary in a time of 3:41.31.
 
Up next for C-USA indoor track & field athletes is the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 11-12 in Birmingham, Ala., at the CrossPlex for qualifying individual performers.