MIAMI (May 11, 2017) – The FIU men's and women's track and field team's decathletes and heptathletes began competition on Thursday during day one of the 2017 Conference USA Track and Field Championships at Kidd Field on the campus of UTEP in El Paso, Texas, and senior's
Chris Sullivan and
Pablo Espitia posted a great day in the men's decathlon and are poised to make some noise with the final events scheduled for tomorrow.
Sullivan finds himself in second place with 4,062 points, after not finishing worse than third in three of the five events contested on Friday. Sullivan took first in the shot put with a toss of 13.23m and tied for first in the high jump clearing the bar at 2.11m, just shy of his 2.12m school record set earlier this season at the University of Miami on April 7. He also took third in the long jump with a personal record leap of 7.16m.
Espitia is within striking distance of the leaders after day one with 3,800 points, finishing in the top three in two events. The Miami native set a personal record in the 100m with a time of 10.94, placing third, and was also third in the 400m with time of 48.88.
In the women's heptathlon, freshman
Samantha Ebanks recorded 1,943 points in the four events on Friday. Ebanks, who attended Ferguson High School in Miami like her teammate Espitia, set a personal-best in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.46, surpassing her previous record of 15.83 set on April 21 at the University of South Florida
On Friday, beginning at 12 p.m. (ET), the men's and women's hammer throw will take place along with the final events of the decathlon and heptathlon. In addition, the men's and women's 10,000m run will take place on Friday evening to close out day two.
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 seven 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/.
