This Saturday and Sunday, the C-USA Indoor Track & Field Championships will take place in Birmingham, Alabama.

Men's Preview

Last year's team standings:

1. Middle Tennessee 130
2. Western Kentucky 100
3. UTSA 97
4. Charlotte 85
5. UTEP 74
6. Rice 51

This year, the Owls have strength in the Heptathlon, led by senior Scott Filip, and joined by Charlie Card-Childers and Colton Torrance. Rice is also strong in the throws, with Austin Riddle, Uche Ugwunze and Michael Yow. Rice also has two strong runners in the 800 meters in Reagan Olguin and David Diaz.

Here's how I see the final team standings for 2018:

1. Charlotte 121
2. Middle Tennessee 98
3. Southern Miss 87
4. UTEP 85
5. UTSA 84
6. Rice 76
7. Louisiana Tech 48
8. Western Kentucky 43
9. North Texas 18
10. Florida International 4

Obviously, there is a tight bunch among 3-5, so upsets or great performances could alter the order.

Women's Preview

Here are last year's team standings, which Rice lost due to a controversial decision on the pole vault:

1. UTEP 113
2. Rice 110
3. Middle Tennessee 87
4. UTSA 60
5. Western Kentucky 54
6. Southern Miss 46

Rice is led by pole vaulters Ayane Rossano and Kylie Swiekatowski, as well as by Hannah Jackson, the conference leader in the 200 meters. Elsa Racasan and Khayla Patel should score in one or more of the distance races.

Here's how I see this year's team standings:

1. Middle Tennessee 150
2. Southern Miss 98
3. UTEP 74
4. Charlotte 70
5. Rice 66
6. Marshall 46
7. Florida Int'l 37
8. Louisiana Tech 36
9. UTSA 30
10. Western Kentucky 24
11. North Texas 17
12. Florida Atlantic 12
13. UAB 10

You can follow the results HERE.

More importantly, to watch via live stream, go HERE.

Championship Schedule

Saturday, February 17

Time Combined Events

9 am Heptathlon

60M
Heptathlon Long Jump
Heptathlon Shot Put
Heptathlon High Jump

9:15 Pentathlon

60H
Pentathlon High Jump
Pentathlon Shot Put
Pentathlon Long Jump
Pentathlon 800M

Field Events

2:00 High Jump M
4:00 Pole Vault M
35lb Weight Throw M
Long Jump W

6:30 Long Jump M
7:00 20lb Weight Throw W

Running Events

4:00 Mile Trial W
4:35 60 Hurdles Trial W
4:55 60 Hurdles Trial M
5:15 60M Trial W
5:30 60M Trial M
5:50 400M Trial W
6:10 400M Trial M
6:30 800M Trial W
6:45 800M Trial M
7:00 200M Trial W
7:15 200M Trial M
7:30 5000M Final W
7:55 5000M Final M
8:20 DMR Final W
8:40 DMR Final M

Sunday, February 18

Time Combined Events

9 am Heptathlon
60H
Heptathlon Pole Vault
Heptathlon 1000M

Field Events

11:00 am
Shot Put M
Triple Jump M
High Jump W

2:00
Pole Vault W
Shot Put W
Triple Jump W

Running Events

1:00 Mile W
1:15 Mile M
1:35 60 Hurdles W
1:40 60 Hurdles M
1:45 60M W
1:50 60M M
2:00 400M W
2:10 400M M
2:20 800M W
2:30 800M M
2:40 200M W
2:45 200M M
2:50 3000M W
3:15 3000M M
3:40 4x400 Relay W
4:00 4x400 Relay M

4:15 Awards Presentation

All Times Central

After the first two events of the Heptathlon, here are the standings:

1. Filip, Rice 1816
2. Riley, UTSA 1744
3. Hollis, Char. 1483
4. Torrance, Rice 1461
5. Okori, La Tech 1422
6. Card-Childers, Rice 1394
7. Jeffers, Char. 1378
8. McDaniel, UTSA 1376

They are at the shot put now.

After shot put:
1. Filip, Rice 2511
2. Riley, UTSA 2406
3. Hollis, Char. 2105
4. Card-Childers, Rice 2039
5. Torrance, Rice 2021
6. McDaniel, UTSA 1944
7. Schulz, Rice 1926
8. Jeffers, Char. 1900

If it’s not too late to chime in with a prediction I’ll go with Bronze Medal 3rd place for both men’s and women’s teams. Go Rice!

Scott Filip wins his 3rd straight event, the shot put, and extends his lead in the Heptathlon.

1. Filip, Rice 2511
2. Riley, UTSA 2406
3. Hollis, Char. 2105
4. Card-Childers, Rice 2039
5. Torrance, Rice 2021
6. McDaniel, UTSA 1944
7. Schulz, Rice 1926
8. Jeffers, Char. 1900

The high jump will close out Day 1.

After 2 events in the Pentathlon, Zinedine Russell is in 11th place with 1541 points, 93 points out of 8th.

After the 3rd event of the Pentathlon, Zinedine Russell moves up to 9th place with 2168 points, just 30 out of 6th place.

An absolute crusher as Colton Torrance no-heights in the high jump. Any outside chance of a top-3 team finish just diminished greatly.

On the plus side, Scott Filip maintains his overall lead, and Charlie Card-Childers moves up to 3rd.

1. Filip, Rice 3314
2. Riley, UTSA 3209
3. Card-Childers, Rice 2870
4. McDaniel, UTSA 2775
5. Hollis, Char. 2749
6. Jeffers, Char. 2649
7. Okori, La Tech 2459
8. Yardley, Char. 2436
9. Schulz, Rice 2422
Patrick, La Tech 2422
11. Torrance, Rice 2021

Zinedine Russell finished 9th in the Pentathlon (0 team points) with a total of 3399.

Heats underway in women's mile. Koech, Mattox and Khayla Patel advance automatically (top 3 in each section advance plus next 4 fastest times).

3 Owls will be in the 2nd of 2 sections - Racasan, Neal and Glover. Agnes Abu of Middle Tennessee and Linda Cheruiyot of UTEP should advance. The 3rd spot will be between Racasan and Susannah Lynch of UNT.

Lynch edges Racasan for the 3rd auto spot, but Elsa will advance on time - so she and Patel will be in tomorrow's finals.

Charlie Card-Childers no-heights in the open high jump. Geez. He missed at 1.86 meters (6' 5") then passed to 1.91 meters (6' 7") and missed twice there. He has cleared 6' 11" before. I think we may need a high jump coach.

Akuira Young does not advance to the finals in the 60 meter hurdles (she was not expected to).

Hannah Jackson looked like she had epoxy on her shoes in the blocks, but recovered from a horrible start to win her heat of the 60 meters. She will advance automatically to the finals but she can't have that kind of start tomorrow.

Rice men score big in the weight throw, with Uche Ugwunze (2nd), Austin Riddle (3rd), Michael Yow (7th) and Matt Garcia (8th). That's 17 points just from that one event!