C-USA Outdoor Track & Field Championship to Return to El Paso in 2015
For the third time since joining Conference USA, UTEP will play host to the 2015 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field at Kidd Field. The league office will reveal the date later this summer.
“We are extremely excited of this opportunity to host 2015 C-USA Outdoor Championship,” said head coach Mika Laaksonen. “We only have positive experiences of being a host in the past and it means a lot to us to be trusted with this honor. I know coaches, administration, and our officials organization will put their absolutely best effort forward and this championship will be a great success. Our track facility is in excellent shape and we will see some unbelievable performances during the championship.”
The last time UTEP hosted the outdoor meet was in 2008 that featured an electrifying finish. The Miner men swept the top spot in the last two events of the meet, edging out Houston for the title.
UTEP first hosted the league outdoor championship in 2006, when the men’s track and field team claimed its first C-USA title by winning the final event of the day (4x400m relay) to score 222 points.
The event will be held at the historic Kidd Field. Built in the early 1930s, Kidd Field has been home to numerous All-Americans, national champions, national record-holders and Olympians. Named after UTEP (then Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy) professor and athletic booster John W. Kidd, the facility was shared with the UTEP football team until 1962, when the facility became sole home to the track and field team.
The eight-lane track was made possible by generous donations from Wayne and Russ Vandenburg of EPT Management and Mark Fry. The track was dedicated in former Miner legend Larry K. Durham’s name for his contribution that allowed Kidd Field to get a makeover in 2011
A state-of-the-art Daktronics video board was added in Januaryof 2008. The 9×15-foot LED video display plants fans right into the action on the track, providing graphics and video elements that displays real-time highlights throughout a meet.
