UTEP’s Foster, Leal Win Silver on the Final Day at the 2026 Conference USA OTF Championships, Saturday

5/17/2026 12:31:00 AM

RESULTS: SATURDAY | COMPLETE

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – UTEP's Samahri Foster and Juan Leal are taking home silver medals as the Miners concluded action at the 2026 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Dean A. Hayes Track & Soccer Stadium on Saturday evening.

Leal took the day's first medal, grabbing silver in the men's 1500-meter race with a time of 3:54.00. It's Leal's second medal overall of the season after he won gold in the mile at the CUSA Indoor Championships. Leal, an El Paso native from Franklin High School, is the first to medal in the event since 2023, when Victor Kibiego took bronze. Overall, the Miners won 20 medals in the 1500 at the CUSA Championships. Leal is the first Miner to win silver in the men's 1500 since 2018 (Michael Saruni).

Foster, a Chapin High School graduate from El Paso, tallied the women's lone medal, a silver in the 400-meter hurdles, clocking a personal-best time of 1:00.56. It's Foster's first career medal, while her performance extended the Miners' streak to five consecutive medals in the event. Loubna Benhadja started the trend in 2022 with bronze, back-to-back silver in 2023 and 2024, and gold last year. UTEP leaped to success in the 400H at the CUSA Championships since 2016 after not recording a podium finish before that campaign. The Miners medaled in nine of the last 10 championships, ending their run in CUSA.

"We wrapped up the outdoor regular season with the men finishing seventh and the women finishing ninth at the Conference USA Championships. Overall, it was a season full of growth, learning, and a lot of valuable experience for a very young team," first-year UTEP head coach Francesca Green said. "On the final day, we had four individual personal best performances along with season-best times in both the men's and women's 4x400 relays, which was a great way to finish the meet and continue competing with energy and purpose all the way through the end. I'm especially proud of Samahri Foster for her second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. She has worked incredibly hard all year, stayed committed through the ups and downs, and it was really rewarding to see that pay off for her on the championship stage. I'm also very proud of Juan Leal for finishing second in the 1500 meters after winning the Conference USA indoor title earlier this year. He continues to compete with toughness and consistency every time he steps on the track."

Paul Rotich clocked a personal best of 3:57.69 in the 1500, placing eighth overall and scoring a point for the Miners.

Kalix Robinson posted a PR 53.29, finishing fifth overall in the men's 400-meter hurdles and tallying four points.

Arion Hill turned in a career-best 14.12 in the men's 110 hurdles and finished sixth (three points).

The men's and women's 4x100-meter relay teams each placed fourth, scoring five points apiece. The men's team (Amir Williams, Elias Munoz, Deondre McIntosh, Timothy Grice) clocked a 40.48, and the women's team (Cydni Martin, Addison Stricklin, Londyn Colon, Oghenekaro Brume) posted a 45.33.

Elias Munoz, a freshman from Franklin HS, scored a point for the Miners, placing eighth in the men's 100 (10.37).

Grace Culver tallied three points with a sixth-place showing in the women's 100 hurdles (14.04).

Londyn Colon recorded two points, finishing seventh in the women's 100 (11.78).

Jacob Yeager scored a point with an eighth-place finish in the men's 800 (1:53.39).

In the women's 200, Juantai-Shay Williams finished sixth (23.66) to score three points, and Cydni Culver was seventh (23.73), registering two points for the Miners.

The men's and women's 4x400 relay teams wrapped the night with two season-best times and placed fourth (five points apiece) in their respective events. The men's team (Robinson, Grice, Ford, Munoz) turned in a 3:13.22, and the women's squad (Martin, Ewa, Foster, Amai Newman) timed at 3:42.17.

Update from Friday night: after correcting a mistake in placement, it was determined that Ewa finished fourth (4.5 points) in the women's high jump (1.65m [5-5]).

The Miners concluded their final CUSA Championships meet with the men's team tallying 45 points and the women's squad scoring 32.5. UTEP recorded three medals overall, as Michael Kpomassy took gold in the men's shot put. He became the first-ever Miner to win the men's shot put at the CUSA Championships, and the first since 1996 to win the event (Leif Larson, WAC). The Miners leave CUSA as the men's shot put champion.

This season was definitely a roller coaster ride at times, but I think that comes with having such a young group. What I'm proud of is that this team continued to fight, continued to grow, and continued to compete. We had a tremendous number of personal bests throughout the year, and for me, a big part of this season was evaluating how we would respond, how we would finish, and getting a clearer picture of what we currently have that can help us continue building this program into what we want it to become," Green said. "I also want to once again thank our senior class for a great year and for everything they've given to this program. Their leadership, commitment, and willingness to continue fighting through the season meant a lot to our team. A big thank you as well to all of our conference scorers for stepping up and competing for this program throughout the championship meet. We've laid an important foundation this year, and now it's about continuing to build, continue developing, and continue embracing what it means to be Miner Built. Now we wait to see which athletes will qualify for the first round of the NCAA Championships, and we're excited for the opportunity to continue competing at the national level."

Liberty dominated the field, scoring 244 points to win the men's team championship. Kennesaw State finished second with 147, and WKU (109.5 points) is third. Middle Tennessee (97), Sam Houston (64), LA Tech (58), UTEP (45), and FIU (31.5) round out the order of finish.

On the women's side, Liberty won the women's title with 161 points, while Kennesaw State (121) was second, and FIU (118.5) finished third. NM State (82 points), Middle Tennessee (61), LA Tech (59), Missouri State (57.5), Delaware (50.5), UTEP (32.5), Sam Houston (30), WKU (23), and Jax State (21) rounded out the order of finish.

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