SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Six Conference USA Champions were crowned and one record was broken on day two of the 2022 C-USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday evening at the Park West Athletics Complex. Competition of the four-day meet, hosted by UTSA, resumes Saturday starting at 1 p.m. CT.
In the men’s hammer throw, Rice’s
Nick Hicks won his second-straight C-USA title in the event, claiming the victory with a throw of 63.87m (209-6) which came on his fifth toss of the series. He’s the first Rice hammer thrower to repeat in the event. Charlotte’s
Jurcek Korpic Lesjak took silver for the second-straight year with his mark of 60.25m (197-8) and Rice’s
Cal Abdulky finished third with his 56.28m (184-7).
Rice sophomore
Tara Simpson-Sullivan broke her own C-USA championship record in the women’s hammer and also repeated as the champion as she recorded a mark of 69.39m (227-8), besting her previous record by over 10 feet set last season. She becomes the first back-to-back champion in the event since the 2009-10 season (Megan Lewis, East Carolina) and her mark moves her into the top 10 nationally. WKU’s
Ajla Basic came in second at 59.07m (193-9) while Marshall’s
Mary Ann Adebayo recorded a throw of 56.39m (185-0) for third. The gold medal for Simpson-Sullivan was her second C-USA medal of the year as she also won the weight throw title at the C-USA Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
UTSA’s
Jack Turner won his second-straight C-USA decathlon gold as he recorded 7,487 points. In all four multi events he’s competed in at C-USA Championships (2020, 2021 Heptathlon, 2021, 2022 Decathlon), Turner has taken home the crown. Turner took first in four of 10 events overall, and only finished below third in one. The sophomore won the long jump (7.34m), shot put (13.42m), high jump (2.02m) and discus (40.79m) while placing second in the 400m (50.73), pole vault (4.50m) and javelin (52.32m).
Freshman
Grant Levesque, the 2022 C-USA Heptathlon Champion, finished in second with 7,261 points after winning the pole vault with a clearance of 5.20m (17-0.75) and the 110m hurdles in a season-best time of 14.35. Levesque’s teammate
Gus Henry came in third with 6,918 points giving the Owls two medalists for the first time since the 2018 season.
LA Tech junior
Johannan Murray became the first Lady Techster to win the C-USA heptathlon title as she finished with 4,937 points following the seven events. She entered the day in second and after her long jump mark of 5.50m moved in to first place, a spot she maintained thanks to back-to-back second place marks in the final two events of the day, solidifying her the win. UTSA’s
Maren Williams used a strong 800m, winning with a time of 2:24.15 to jump up two positions and earn her the silver medal with 4,826 points. FIU’s
Maika Cuenca finished third with 4,752 points to become the first Panther to place in the heptathlon at the conference meet.
The first running event of the championships was the men’s 10,000m and it was a 1-2-3 Charlotte sweep within seconds of each other, as the 2021 runner-up sophomore
Nick Scudder, crossed the line first in 30:40.83. It is his second career outdoor gold medal as he also won the 5,000m last season. Scudder also claimed the 3,000m and 5,000m gold at this year’s indoor championship meet.
Senior
Paul Arredondo finished just a tenth of a second later in 30:40.94 after finishing third in the race a year ago. Arredondo and Scudder led from wire-to-wire and were able to complete the Charlotte sweep when teammate
Hunter White made a huge kick down the final 100 to finish in 30:41.02. The next finisher crossed over 18 seconds after the Charlotte trio.
In the women’s race, Rice outdoor sophomore
Grace Forbes repeated as the 10,000m champion as she recorded a time of 34:54.95. The current C-USA record holder led the field for the majority of the race and finished 30 seconds ahead of second.
It is Forbes’ second individual C-USA gold medal of the 2021-22 season as she was the C-USA cross country champion and did not compete at the indoor championships. Forbes has 10 individual C-USA titles to her credit in her career across the outdoor, indoor and cross country championships. She is also the first repeat champion in the event since Cali Roper of Rice won it in three-straight years from 2014-16.
Louise Lounes of Charlotte came in second with her time of to earn her second-straight All-Conference honor after finishing third last season. She was followed by
Maddie Boswell of UTSA who clocked a 35:32.44 for third place.
After two days of competition, Charlotte leads the men’s standings with 38 points while Rice is in second with 35. On the women’s side, Rice is on top with 28 points and Marshall follows with 15.
Field events resume Saturday with the men’s discus at 1 p.m. CT. Running prelims kick off with the men’s 1,500 meter at 5:30 p.m. The day concludes with the men’s and women’s 3000m steeplechase, with the men starting at 9 p.m.
The championship concludes Sunday with the remainder of the field events and running finals. The men’s shot put starts at 1 p.m. and the women’s 4x400 relay wraps up the meet at 9 p.m. An awards ceremony will follow. Fans can follow live streaming of this year’s championships on CUSA.TV for free.