The UTEP track and field team will open the season at the highly competitive Commodore Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. On Friday and Saturday.
The Miners will take on Florida, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri, Western Kentucky, Ga Tech, Middle Tennessee and Texas Tech. The two-day meet will open up at 3 p.m. MT on Friday with the men’s and women’s high jump. The running events will begin with the women’s 200m at 6 p.m., which will feature All-Americans Tobi Amusan and Florence Uwakwe.
Last season, Uwakwe claimed the silver medal at the Conference USA in the event posting a season-best time of 23.84. The senior helped the women’s team claim the conference title for the second consecutive year earning points in the 100m dash. The sprinter will be competing in the 60m dash on Saturday at 12:40 p.m. and will be part of the 4x400m relay on Saturday at 3:55 p.m.
Amusan will also compete in the 60m hurdles on Saturday set to beginning at 12 p.m. As a freshman, she sealed the indoor season with a personal-best time of 8.23 claiming the crown at the C-USA Championships. Joining Amusan in the 60m hurdles will be pentathletes Lucia Mokrasova and Rebecca Oshinbanjo. Mokrasova holds the school record in the pentathlon with 3,950 points notched at the Texas A&M Invitational.
During that meet she clocked in a personal best of 8.79 in the 60m hurdles. Mokrasova, Oshinbanjo and Tyler Ragin will compete in the long jump on Friday at 4 p.m.
Competing in the women’s 400m on Saturday at 2:25 p.m. will be Imani Adams, Ada Benjamin, Yanique Bennett, Madison Gipson and Dreshanae Rolle. Last year, Benjamin ran a second-place finish at the C-USA Championships in the 400m. She opened the season with a season best of 54.43.
Leading the men’s side will be the distance squad, which claimed the 2016 C-USA Cross Country team title. Jonah Koech will be running the mile on Saturday at 1:35 p.m. The All-American sophomore claimed four first-place finishes last season in the mile. He went on to finish sixth overall at the NCAA Championships.
Running in the 3,000m will be Cosmas Boit and Daniel Cheruiyot at 3:40 p.m. on Saturday. Cheruiyot scored points for the Miners at the C-USA Championships in both the 3,000m and 5,000m. Boit helped the distance medley team notch a silver medal at the conference meet in 2016.
For live results and a complete schedule of all events at the Commodore Invitational Click HERE.
