Miners Earn Four Medals at C-USA Championships

The UTEP track and field team took four medals on the second day of action at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships.

Jallycia Pearson helped the Miners earn their first 10 points of the meet with a gold-medal finish in the heptathlon. The Conference USA Champion swept the competition for a second day as she claimed the crown in the javelin throw and 800m run and silver in the long jump.

The El Paso native registered a personal best of 5.77m (18-11.25) in her second flight in the long jump, garnering second. Keeping her performance consistent the multievent student-athlete posted a first place finish in the javelin throw with a toss of 35.92m (117-10).

To conclude the seven events Pearson placed first in the 800m run with a time of 2:19.14. Posting top marks in five of the heptathlon events the junior set a new meet record of 5,576 points, the previous mark of 5,571 was set in 2007 by SMU’s Gaelle Niare.

Pearson’s performance currently ranks 11th in the nation.

On the men’s side, UTEP swept the top three spots in the men’s 10,000m run with senior Elkana Rotich taking the crown in 30:26.85. Junior Elphas Maiyo was next for the Miners in 30:45.99, followed by freshman Evans Kiprono in 31:11.16.

The Kenyan natives each finished strong as they set the pace of the first distance contest of the meet. The three Miners kept together until the last two miles where Elkana Rotich extended into the lead.

With the day’s finals in the books, the UTEP men’s team is tied for first with East Carolina at 24 points each. The Miner women are currently in fifth place with 10 points.

The third day of the C-USA Championship will resume tomorrow at 2 p.m. (MT) with the women and men’s long jump.