United Athletic Conference

Related Material

Women's Team Information.pdf 2001 Results.pdf Men's Team Information.pdf Schedule of Events.pdf

Houston, Texas and Rice University will play host to the 2002 Western Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship. This years championship is going to be held at the Wendel D. Ley Track at the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium on May 15-18.

This seasons mens field is a wide-open race. With the departure of last years champion, TCU, there is a new champion looking to be crowned. SMU and UTEP head the field, matching strength against speed. UTEP was the 2001 runner-up, being edged by Horned Frogs by 11 points. SMU finished fourth last season, but are currently the nations fourth ranked team. Fresno State, Rice, Tulsa, Boise State and Louisiana Tech round out the mens side.

For the women, 2001 Champion, the Rice Owls are on their home track and are looking for their third-straight title. Nevadas 111 points last season earned them a second-place spot, edging Fresno State and TCU by one, and SMU by two. Boise State, Tulsa, Hawai`i, UTEP and Louisiana Tech round out the womens field.

Previewing the men, Boise States throwers helped to land the Broncos in TrackWires April 30th top 25. The Broncos are led by Dandy Dozeners Rob Minnitti, Justin St. Clair and Mark Hoxmeier. Hoxmeier has one of the top-three throws in the WAC in both the shot put and discus. He has provisionally qualified for both with marks of 18.96m in the shot and 59.04 in the discus. St. Clair and Minnitti are one-two in the conference in the javelin, having both automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship with distances of 73.62m and 73.47m, respectively. Stellan Kjellander has the third-best throw in the hammer, clearing 62.36m. The sprinters for Boise State are led by Ray Ardill, who has the second best time in the conference in both the 200m and 400m. Fresno State will look to a pair of jumpers to lead the team. Duran Archie and Kyrah Ayers are both in the top five in the long jump. Archie with a distance of 7.56m is second, while Ayers is fourth landing at 7.44m. Kyle Carano has the third-best jump this season in the triple jump, clearing 15.88m to provisionally qualify for NCAAs. Pole vaulters Russell Weaver and Mark Unzueta are one two in their respective event, clearing marks of 4.88m and 4.76m, respectively.

Louisiana Tech will rely on the feet of Tomas Alexander, who has the fourth-best time in the 100m at 10.49 and is in the top 10 in the 200m. Hurdler Billy Threets posted his fastest time of the season last week in the 400m hurdlers. His time of 51.36 is good for second in the WAC. Rice will look to Ryan Harlan to bring in some points from the decathlon. He set a new school record for points, and automatically qualified for the NCAA championship, when he tallied 7,948 points at the TSU Relays in his first outdoor meet of the season. Harlan, along with teammate Ben Wiggins have the best times in the 110m hurdles, notching marks of 13.90 and 14.26, respectively. Vaughn Walwyn heads the jumper regime for the Owls.


SMU takes it No. 4 national ranking into the championship and are led by a throwing fivesome of Hannes Hopley, Janus Robberts, Libor Charfreitag, Peter Mitsides and Andrey Borodkin. Four of the five are among the nations top 12 in their respective events. Janus Robberts owns the best throw in the WAC, second best in the NCAA this season in the shot put with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 21.08m. Behind Robberts with a mark of 18.98m is fellow Mustang Andrey Borodkin. The Mustangs have three of the top four throws this season in the discus. They are led by Hannes Hopleys mark of 61.81m, which is the best in the WAC, second best in the nation. Janus Robberts best throw this season is at 59.04m, while Mitsides is at 56.35m. In the hammer, Libor Charfreitag broke his own WAC record with a throw of 78.58m, passing his old mark of 77.22m set in 2000. The throw is also the best in the NCAA this season. Dalibor Balgac leads the way for the distance runners, holding the top times in both the 1,500m and 5,000m. Teammate Roman Oravecs 1:48.22 lead the WAC the in 800m. UTEPs sprinting core of Aaron Egbele, Tawio Ajibade and Vitaliy Medvedev have three of the top four times in both the 100 and 200m events. Egbele is the only WAC sprinter to break 21 seconds in the 200m, holding a time of 20.54. In the 100m Egbele and Ajibade go one-two with times of 10.11 and 10.18. Egbeles 10.11 is also the third fastest in the NCAA this season. Miner quarter-miler Richard Petty earned a time of 46.38 on April 13, and remains the only person to brake 47 seconds in the WAC this season. UTEP also holds the top spot in each jumping event. High jumper Henderson Dottin has the fourth-best jump in the nation, clearing 2.22m, Adrian Ghoroaie leads the WAC with a mark of 16.22m in the triple jump and Bobby Agins 7.61m in the long jump is also tops in the conference. Tulsa has the five top spots in the 3,000m, and are led by Andy Normans 8:38.92 in that event. Jamal Bogle is the Hurricanes best hurdler, with a mark of 15.59 in the 110m hurdles.

For the women, Boise State freshman Robin Wemple set a new WAC record in the 3,000m steeplechase in the last regular season meet of the year. Her time of 10:37.83, is almost 11 seconds faster than Fresno States Kara June who set the record earlier this season. Trina Rogers owns the best throw in the WAC in the javelin by almost one and a half meters, with a mark of 48.75m. Fresno State is led by junior Crystal Simmons. The multi-event athlete is in the top five in three events. Simmons leads the WAC in the long jump, clearing 6.23m. She holds a mark of 1.68m in the high jump and has recorded a time of 14.09 in the 100m hurdles. Teammates Crystal Phillips and Ocie Parks lead the way for the Bulldog sprinters. Phillips and Parks have both recorded times of 11.72 in the 100m, good for second. Distance runner Kara June is second in the WAC with a time of 10:48.51 in the 3,000m steeplechase. She set a new WAC record early in the season, but had it broken by Boise States Wemple.

Hawai`i looks towards the distance events to pick up most of its points. Casey McGuire-Turcotte holds the second-best time in the 3,000m with a time of 10:01.51. High jumper Olivia Smooty holds a mark of 1.70m, which is also second. Louisiana Techs Melissa Gibbons and Mariela Guante have been the most consistent performers for the Lady Techsters this season. Gibbons leads the WAC with a throw of 52.51m in the discus and has the third-best throw in the shot put with a mark of 15.91m. Guantes 15.19 is just behind Gibbons in the shot. Ayanna Alexander will help La. Tech in the jumping, as she lands in the top three in both the triple and long jump. Her long jump mark of 6.06m is good for third and her 12.44m in the triple, give the second-best jumps this season.

Nevada is one of the most diverse teams in the field. Heptathlete Erin Kelly racked up 2,223 points in April to give her an NCAA provisional mark. The points are the best in the WAC and in the NCAAs top 20. In the pole vault, Jenni Ashcroft set a school record, clearing a height of 4.06. She is the only WAC member to clear 4.00m this season. Wolf Pack teammates Chanika Corley and Allison Sewell, land one-two in the 100m hurdles and are the only two to break 14 seconds. Corleys time is 13.94, while Sewell crossed at 13.97. Rice is led by 2001 NCAA 400m hurdle champion, Allison Beckford. Beckfords time of 56.72 in the 400m hurdles is tops in the conference and is fourth in the NCAA this season. She also owns the top time in the conference in the 400m with a time of 52.68. Erin Brand and Tanya Wright led the conference in the 1,500m and 800m, respectively. Owl Keitha Moseley cleared 1.80 in the high jump to earn the top spot.

SMU trio of Irache Quintanal, Ruta Rakstyte and Eva Charfreitag all sit amongst the leaders in the throwing events. Quintanal and Rakstyte are one-two in the shot put with marks of 16.60m and 16.25m, respectively. Quintanals 16.60m is the ninth-best toss this season in the NCAA. Charfreitag joins Quintanal in the discus leaders, holding a throw of 49.58m. She sits just behind Quintanal, whose toss of 52.16m is an NCAA provisional mark. Distance runner Karin van Rooyen (Hopley) leads the conference in both the 3,000m and 5,000m events. The freshman is the only WAC member to brake 10:00 (9:34.29) in the 3,000m and 17:00 (16:03.40) in the 5,000m. UTEP holds the two top times in the relays. In the 4x100m relay, the Miners mark of 44.79 is an NCAA provisional time, while in the 4x400m relay, they edged Tulsa by .12 seconds. Yemi Fagbamila holds the fastest time in the WAC in the 200m, by .02 over SMUs Tracey Ball, with a time of 23.46. Fagbamila is second in the 400m at 53.05. Distance runner Corine van Beek is a top-five performer in both the 800m and 1,500m.

Tulsa sprinter Shana Robinson leads the WAC with a time of 11.56 in the 100m. Hurdler Jamese James set a new school record at the Drake Relays with a time of 57.86 in the 400m hurdles. Distance runner Sarah Haskins time of 17:07.15 in the 5,000m and 35:55.034 in the 10,000m are both good for second in the conference.

Check at right to see the 2002 WAC Championship Preogram. See the men's pages, women's pages, schedule of events and the 2001 results. For this years results Click Here.