UTSA Wins First Ever Men's Track Title

The UTSA men's track and field team rallied from a 31-point deficit the final 10 events to capture their first-event outdoor team title at the 2001 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships here Monday night.

UTSA, which took the lead for good on a third-place finished by Francis Ngapout in the 200-meter dash, finished the meet with 131 points to edge UT-Arlington by 16 points. The Roadrunners trailed Northwestern State 81-50 after the Demons edged UTSA in the 4x100-meter relay, but UTSA got 23 points in the 110-meter hurdles.

Junior Alex Flores won the event with a 14.20 followed by James Cantu's 14.45 and Carl Johnson
finished fourth with 14.49.

"We we're hoping for something like that," said Flores of the near sweep. "Every little point counts big when you win by as few points as we did," said head coach Que McMaster. "We told our guys we wanted 25 points from field events, 25 from the sprints, 25 from the hurdles and 25 from the relays and then grab a few points here and there."

Along with Flores, Ngapout won the 100-meter dash He also finished thirdin the 200 meters. Freshman distance runner Henry Maruping won the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:53.50 and a second in the 5,000 meters with a 14:37.07.

The win is the third team conference championship this season at UTSA, joining volleyball and men's tennis.