BEN BREAKS SCHOOL RECORD AT HOUSTON
For Immediate Release: Saturday, February 8, 2004
Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Sports Information Director

HOUSTON, TX-Senior Rashaad Ben (Austin, TX/Sidney Lanier HS) turned in a record-breaking performance as The University of Texas-Pan American's track and field team opened their season at the Houston Indoor Invitational at the University of Houston Saturday evening.

Ben finished third overall in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.09 seconds. He broke his own UTPA record of 8.34 seconds, and his time was only .14 of a second off the NCAA Division I provisional qualifying mark of 7.95 seconds.

The Broncs finished 12th of 22 teams, while the Lady Broncs were 18th of 21. Hector Gandara of the men's team finished third at 5000 meters in 15:45.81, while freshman Jason Tejada (Brownsville, TX/Hanna HS) was fourth in the same race in 16:13.02.

For the women, freshman Amber Kelly (Houston, TX/J.F. Dobie HS) finished fourth in the 20 pound weight throw with a toss of 49 feet, 11 inches. That mark puts her third on the all-time list at UTPA. She also was eighth in the women's shot put with a throw of 43 feet, 2 ¼ inches. Junior Deneb DeLuna (Mission, TX/Sharyland HS) turned in her best indoor mark in the shot out at 43 feet, ¼ inch. Junior Claudia Rosas (Mission, TX/ Sharyland HS) was seventh at 5000 meters in 19:14.68, while sophomore Dannely Flores (Brownsville, TX/Hanna HS) had a personal best at 800 meters in 2:25.85.

"Rashaad's performance was huge," said UTPA Head Coach Ricky Vaughn. "He ran a great race, and hopefully, next week he can get into the 7.90s and we'll see what happens. It was our first meet, and it was the third meet for most of the other schools, so they had more indoor experience than we did, and it showed. We got some good experience this week, and hopefully, we'll do much better next week."

Texas-Pan American will return to action next week at the UH Run Sport/All-Comers Meet.

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