Championship Central | Results | Photos
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Four individual champions and a relay team were crowned on Friday, as the Wichita State men lead the way through the first five scored events on the opening day of the 2019 American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. The action picks up Saturday at 9 a.m. ET from the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala., starting with the final men’s heptathlon events.
Wichita State, which leads after the first day for a second-straight year, had four podium finishes. Tulsa enters Saturday’s action in second place with 34 points. Cincinnati recorded 32.5 points on Friday to end the day in third place.
Four-time defending indoor men’s champion Houston is in sixth place with 17 points, but the Cougars saw 19 of its track athletes advance to Saturday’s finals after running top-12 prelim times. The Cougars won their fourth title in 2018 after capturing six event titles on the second day of the championships.
Two reigning indoor champions successfully defended their titles, while The American saw three new champions take home their first gold medals.
After winning the title in 2017, Houston’s Trumaine Jefferson earned his second long jump gold medal with his first-place distance of 7.84 meters. Three Wichita State athletes had a scoring performance in the long jump, including two podium finishes. Rayvon Allen of Wichita State finished second (7.57 meters) and 2018 American indoor champion Jared Belardo finished third (7.48 meters). Allen placed third in last year’s indoor championship. Kaden Griffin finished sixth place (7.21 meters) to pick up three more points for the Shockers.
Tulsa distance runner Benjamin Preisner won his third-straight American 5,000-meter title, running his final mile of the race in 4:19. The senior finished the event in 14:24.62 to take home gold. Two teammates joined him in the top four with Scott Beattie finishing on Preisner’s heels in second place (14:25.46) and Peter Lynch placing fourth in 14:35.12. Cincinnati’s Aaron Bienenfeld took third place with his time of 14:26.54.
USF senior David Bell was the first athlete to stand atop the podium in 2019 after winning the pole vault title. Bell, the conference’s 2018 runner up, cleared 5.13 meters on his third attempt to take home his first American gold medal. Two Bulls joined him in the top eight with freshman Stone Baker finishing fourth (4.93 meters) and Mitchell Mueller tying for eighth (4.78 meters). Wichita State senior Hayden Bugner finished second with his clearance of 5.03 meters on his first attempt, while UConn senior Ian Berger finished third after clearing 5.03 meters on his third attempt.
Cincinnati sophomore Sam Meece became the second Bearcat in three years to win the men’s weight throw title. Meece recorded a personal-record toss of 20.98 meters on his opening attempt to win gold. He set his PR by 4.5.” Wichita State’s Cory Martens finished second with his final throw of 19.92 meters to also set a PR. Memphis’ Adar Sheere placed third with his toss that traveled 19.54 meters. Cincinnati (Chris Province), Memphis (Adam Neelly) and Wichita State (Isaiah Evans) each placed an additional thrower in the top eight. Last year’s runner-up and the 2017 champion, Aleks Rapp of Tulsa, finished fourth.
Neck-and-neck on the final stretch, Memphis’ Zachary Wyatt bolted ahead of UConn’s Ian Mickool to give the Tigers their first American distance medley relay title. Memphis’ squad of Tate Wyatt, Kolbeinn Gunnarsson, Namman Norment and Z. Wyatt won the race in 10:04.23. UConn earned its second podium finish in as many years, as the team of Joshua Bedard, Omar Gebril, Brian Camillieri and Mickool took silver. Tulsa, which has won four American DMR men’s titles finished third place.
Houston showed its strength on the track with 19 athletes advancing to Saturday’s finals. Five Cougars will be featured in the 60-meter dash final, as 2017 champion Mario Burke led a pack of Houston sprinters, clocking 6.62 seconds. Houston has won this event in each of the league’s past five championships.
Winning the 200-meter dash in three of the past five years, Houston will send six sprinters to the final round of this year’s conference 200m. Nine-time All-America transfer from Arkansas Obi Igbokwe ran the one-lap race in 20.96 seconds. Igbokwe ran the fifth-fastest 200m time in the country during the regular season. In addition to Igbokwe, the Cougars swept the top three spots in the prelims with Nicholas Alexander and Burke winning their heats with respective times of 21.07 and 21.15 seconds.
The Cougars also placed three in the top-eight of the 60-meter hurdles prelims with two-time American indoor champion Amere Lattin leading the way (7.85 seconds). UConn and Cincinnati will also be well-represented Saturday, as each saw a pair of their athletes earn spots in the final race.
After four events, Wichita State’s Ben Johnson leads the heptathlon field with 3,171 points. Last year’s winner, Nathaniel Mechler of Houston has the second-most points with 3,011. Mechler and Johnson went one and two, respectively, in the 60m hurdles portion of the heptathlon. UConn’s Benjamen Grosse placed first in the high jump after clearing 2.04 meters. Wichita State’s Johnson and Davis Dubbert tied for second (1.98m). Johnson and Mechler each had top-three finishes in the long jump, as Cincinnati’s Damien Berthenet jumped 7.02 meters to win the event. He enters Saturday’s action in third place in the heptathlon (2,965 points). Johnson recorded the furthest shot put toss (14.35 meters), while Mechler came in second with his throw of 13.20 meters. The heptathlon will conclude with its final events Saturday (60mH, pole vault and 1,000m).
Houston and UConn dominated the 400-meter trial races. Houston’s Kahmari Montgomery, the 2018 American indoor champion and record-holder, sprinted for the top prelim time of 46.19 seconds. Montgomery enters Saturday’s final with the sixth-fastest 400m time in the country this season (45.72 seconds). Teammates Frederick Lewis and Trumaine Jefferson will join him in the final. UConn will also have multiple athletes in the final with Wellington Ventura and Kyle Trocki running top-eight times to move on.
Four Shockers will run for the title in the mile Saturday, as the field includes 2018 champion Zack Penrod. Teammate Jed Helker ran the fastest prelim time (4.14.22). UConn, Memphis and Tulsa will also boast multiple athletes in the final field. Penrod additionally shined in the 800-meter run prelims, recording the fastest time of the day (1:50.50). Two athletes form UConn’s (Tyler Gleen and Joseph Pearl) and Tulsa’s (Robert Tully and Grey Howard) rosters ran within the qualifying times to join Penrod in the finals.
Men’s Teams Scores
1) Wichita State - 40
2) Tulsa - 34
3) Cincinnati - 32.5
4) Memphis - 27
5) USF- 18.5
6) Houston - 17
7) UConn - 16
8) ECU- 10
Championships Schedule:
Saturday, February 23
Men's Heptathlon
9:00 a.m. M-Heptathlon 60m Hurdles
10:00 a.m. M-Heptathlon Pole Vault
3:05 p.m. M-Heptathlon 1000m Run
Field Events
9:45 a.m. High Jump - Men Trials & FINAL
9:45 a.m. High Jump - Women Trials & FINAL
10:00 a.m. Shot Put - Men Trials & FINAL
11:00 a.m. Triple Jump - Women (Pit A) Trials & FINAL
12:30 p.m. Shot Put - Women Trials & FINAL
1:00 p.m. Triple Jump - Men (pit B) Trials & FINAL
Track Events - ALL FINALS
11:20 a.m. Mile Run - Women
11:30 a.m. Mile Run - Men
11:40 p.m. 400m Dash - Women (2-Section Final)
11:50 p.m. 400m Dash - Men (2-Section Final)
12:10 p.m. 60m Hurdles - Women
12:20 p.m. 60m Hurdles - Men
12:30 p.m. 60m Dash- Women
12:40 p.m. 60m Dash - Men
1:00 p.m. 800m Run - Women
1:10 p.m. 800m Run - Men
1:20 p.m. 200m Dash - Women (2-Section final)
1:30 p.m. 200m Dash - Men (2-Section final)
1:40 p.m. 3,000m Run - Women Unseeded
1:55 p.m. 3,000m Run - Men Unseeded
2:10 p.m. 3,000m Run - Women Seeded
2:25 p.m. 3,000m Run - Men Seeded
2:40 p.m. 4 x 400m Relay - Women
2:50 p.m. 4 x 400m Relay - Men
3:20 p.m. AWARDS CEREMONY
All times central