MIAMI (May 12, 2017) – FIU men's track and field standout
Chris Sullivan's continued his impressive 2017 campaign on Friday, taking third in the decathlon at the Conference USA Track and Field Championships at Kidd Field on the campus of UTEP in El Paso, Texas. Sullivan is the first Panthers' student-athlete to reach the medal stand at this year's championships.
Sullivan, who finished the 10-event competition with a school-record 7,288 points, came into the final five events Friday in second place with 4,062 points after day one. Following the 110m hurdles, the first event of the afternoon – in which Sullivan posted a time of 15.72 – he proceeded to finish in the top three in two of the next four events during the day.
Sullivan won the discus with a personal-best throw of 39.60m, and took third in the javelin with a mark of 34.22m.
Sullivan's 7,288 points recorded during the two-day event surpassed the old mark of 6,648, set at the prestigious Penn Relays in 1995, by former FIU great Richard Curry. Sullivan also holds the third-best point total in school history in the decathlon, with 6,551 points set at the 2015 C-USA Championships in 2015.
On Saturday, the field events will continue beginning at 3 p.m., followed by the prelims of the running events, starting at 7 p.m. On Sunday, the final day of competition, the schedule will run very much like Saturday, with the remainder of the field events starting at 3 p.m., followed by the finals of the running events at 6:30 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to follow the team on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUTrackXC) for all the latest FIU Track and Cross Country news.
Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 56,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
