Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney pulled out a gutsy performance in the 10,000 meters with a new school-record time of 35:03.62 to become UCF’s first long-distance medalist at a C-USA Outdoor Championship. She led for 23 of the 25 laps before seniors Risper Kimaiyo (UTEP) and Rhiannon Johns (UAB) – who both rank among the NCAA’s top 20 this season – were able to capitalize off the final kick.

Blaney shaved roughly 36 seconds off her personal best to erase UCF’s 12-year-old record and claim the bronze medal. Her performance impressed Johns, who approached the freshman after the race to commend her for spirited run.

Sophomore Precious Ogunleye and redshirt freshman Kalen Hambrick became the first throwing duo in program history to medal in the same event at a C-USA Championship meet thanks to their outstanding performances in the hammer throw.

The Knights kept loose and had to adapt to several schedule changes after flash flood warnings in the area turned the sky black early. Luckily, by the time the hammer was supposed to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET, the sun came out and the Knights were ready to make their mark.

Ogunleye recorded her best throw on her final attempt (55.70m/182-09) to clinch silver for the best finish of her career. She finished third in the shot put at last year’s outdoor meet. Hambrick bested her personal record by nine feet, posting 54.60m/179-02 for the first medal of her career. Both became the first Knights to medal in the hammer at a C-USA meet.

After their first day of competition, the Knights are in second place with 20 points, trailing leader SMU by eight points. Competition begins Saturday at 5 p.m. ET with the long jump.

Sunday, all events are final with the championship set to conclude with the awards presentation at 10 p.m. ET. Both @UCF_Track and @ConferenceUSA1 will provide updates on Twitter, and the official hashtags of the championships are #CUSAChamp and #CUSATF.

Live results will be posted at the C-USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship Central and provided by Flash Texas. The Knights hope to become the first women’s program in conference history to clinch four-straight outdoor crowns.

Freeman proved unstoppable once again by topping the 200-meter school record with the world’s top wind-legal time this year, 22.57 (+0.1). The world’s current 100-meter leader edged three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist Lauryn Williams in a photo finish to claim first place.

Logan catapulted herself into the NCAA’s top 25 this year with the best performance by a Knight in the 800M since 2009, finishing third in 2:06.37. She shaved nearly three seconds off her previous season best and continues to reign as Conference USA’s top 800M runner in 2013.

After a lengthy weather delay that sidelined the field athletes for more than four hours and pushed back the race schedule by 30 minutes, the 4×100 relay opened the meet with a performance that was worth the wait. Afia Charles, Aurieyall Scott, Alexis Faulknor and Freeman combined to cross the finish line in 43.58 for the third-best time in the NCAA this season. UCF and Texas A&M are currently the only two programs in the country to boast multiple times in the event that rank among the nation’s top 10.

Charles had a breakthrough in the 400 meters with her fastest race in more than a year, clinching first place with a time of 53.77. Charles moved up on the NCAA East Region leaderboard to No. 15.

Scott etched her name on the NCAA’s top-10 leaderboard this season in her first 100-meter race since her gold-medal finish at the NACAC U-23 Championships last July. She won the second heat in 11.30 and finished second overall only to Lauryn Williams. Senior Amanda Leland produced the second-best wind-legal time of her career (11.85) in the race before topping her personal best in the 200M soon after with a time of 24.64 (+0.0).

Junior Erica Winston clocked a new personal-record 2:10.55 in her best 800M race in two years to finish seventh. Freshman Caroline Pauls won the second heat of the event in 2:13.24, which was good enough for ninth place.

Sandy Jean emerged as the top collegiate finisher in the 400 hurdles with her time of 59.20, marking her second time of 2013 that ranks among the East Region’s top 15. Freshman Rayeisha Lowe-Chin recorded the best time of her career at 1:03.60.

Three Knights finished among the top five in the 1500 meters. Sophomore Amelia Williams led the way in third place by improving her personal best for the second time this season (4:45.07). Sophomore Cody Castillo finished fourth in 4:51.58 and freshman Rachel Petrik was close behind in fifth with a time of 4:55.17.

Freshman Jocelin Adona capped the races as the Knights’ lone representative in the 3,000- meter finals and cruised to third place with a personal-record time of 11:00.56.

Freshman Megan Patterson boasted the best finish by a field athlete of the day with a second-place toss of 14.21m/46-07.25 in the shot put. The Knights also earned two top-three finishes from Erica Weiss in the pole vault after clearing 3.60m/11-09.75, and Precious Ogunleye in the discus with a mark of 45.75m/150-01.

Ogunleye led three Knights in the hammer throw with a fourth-place showing of 53.43m/175-03 for another mark that ranks among Conference USA’s top five this season.

Up next, the Knights will visit Gainesville for the second time in three weeks when they compete at the Tom Jones Invitational on April 20.

Last year, Octavious Freeman announced her presence in her collegiate outdoor debut with a Florida Relays meet record in the 100 meters with the then-world’s fastest time. On Friday, she decided to one-up herself by besting her meet record and rewriting a 15-year-old Percy Beard Track record in her first 100M race of 2013.

Her first-place, personal-best and new-school-record 11.02 (+1.2) is currently the fastest time in the world this year. It not only leads the NCAA but also matches the ninth-best time on the all-time collegiate performance list.

And her day wasn’t over, yet.

Freeman also shined in the 200 meters two hours later when she matched the NCAA’s top time this season with a wind-legal 22.85 (+1.8). She held off three-time World and Olympic gold medalist Natasha Hastings for first place.

Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney made quite a statement in the first 5000-meter race of her career by setting a new school, freshman and personal record. Her fourth-place time of 16:40.31 erased the 14-year-old school record by more than 23 seconds and currently ranks third in Conference USA. Her classmate Heather Classe also improved her personal record by roughly 30 seconds, crossing the line in 17:43.13.

Despite facing a headwind, Sonnisha Williams won the university division long jump for the second-straight year with a season-best leap of 6.15m/20-02.25 (-1.1), which ranks third in C-USA and among the NCAA’s top 20.

Sophomore Precious Ogunleye recorded the second-best discus throw of her career with a fourth-place finish of 46.03m/151-00 to jump into the top 10 of the C-USA standings.

Junior Ne’Ausha Logan continued her strong start to the outdoor season by improving upon her C-USA-best 800M time for the third-straight week, crossing the finish line in 2:09.27 for 15th place.

Sandy Jean posted the best performance by a runner in C-USA this season and jumped into the NCAA’s top-25 list this year. She narrowly missed her personal best with a season-best time of 58.96 for ninth place.

Junior Afia Charles held on firmly to her No. 2 spot among Conference USA leaders this season in the 400M with a season-best 54.01 for 18th place.

Freshman Alexis Faulknor finished 12th in the 100M with a wind-aided time of 11.61, and junior Jen Clayton produced an all-conditions personal-best 11.87 (+2.1).

Senior Erica Weiss matched the second-best mark of her career in the pole vault, breaching C-USA’s top-five leaders this season by clearing 3.75m/12-03.50 to tie for ninth place.

The sprint medley group of Freeman, Alexis Faulknor, Afia Charles and Ne’Ausha Logan smashed a 4-year-old school record with a second-place time of 3:46.52. Freeman and Faulknor blazed through their 200-meter legs, and although Charles stumbled just before the curve at 200 meters of her 400-meter leg, she recovered quickly and pushed through to hand off to Logan for the final 800 meters. Together, they shed more than six seconds off the previous program best.

All three throwers representing UCF in the shot put advanced to the finals. Freshman Megan Patterson paced the group with a collegiate-best 14.31m/46-11.50 for third place, marking the best finish in any event of her career. Sophomore Precious Ogunleye finished eighth (13.82m/45-04.25) and Destinee Romain was close behind with a toss of 13.80m/45-03.50.

Two Knights also advanced to the hammer throw finals where Kalen Hambrick recorded a new personal record for the second-straight week. Hambrick hit a PR on her first attempt before topping that mark in the finals with a seventh-place throw of 51.95m/170-05. Meanwhile, Ogunleye took ninth place (51.11m/167-08).

Sonnisha Williams, Jen Clayton, Amanda Leland and Sandy Jean comprised UCF’s 4×200 relay that finished second among collegiate teams and fourth overall with a time of 1:34.71.

The Knights next head to Miami for the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on April 13.

The Knights captured the title with 132.5 points, besting runner-up Memphis by 39.5 points. Junior Aurieyall Scott earned Performance of the Meet, Alexis Faulknor won Freshman of the Meet and Caryl Smith Gilbert earned her fifth C-USA Coach of the Year honor.

In perhaps the most defining moment of the day, the sprinters swept the podium of the 60 meters. Scott bested the meet record, the school record and her personal record with a blistering performance of 7.13, which ranks as the NCAA’s new leading time. Octavious Freeman earned silver at 7.22 and Faulknor clinched the first medal of her career with a bronze finish and new PR time of 7.43. Senior Lutisha Bowen also scored points in seventh place at 7.52, giving UCF a whopping 26 points in the event.

Scott continued to impress in the 200 meters with her second meet record in the event in as many days. This year’s world leader posted the second-best time of her career (22.91) for gold. Freeman’s season-best time of 23.35 picked up a silver medal, and Faulknor hit a new personal best 24.10 to score points in fifth place.

Bowen earned her first C-USA medal with her runner-up finish in the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.27.

Junior Afia Charles rewrote her own school record in the 400 meters with a personal-best 54.02, which won her heat and was six-hundredths of a second short of the leader. Her time was better than the previous meet record.

The throwers excelled with a school-record performance and two personal bests in the shot put. Precious Ogunleye captured her second school record of the weekend with a monster personal best of 15.17m/49-09.25 for fourth place. Destinee Romain topped her personal record with a mark of 14.06m/46-01.50 to tally more points in seventh place.

Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney picked up her second school record in as many days, shaving time off her precious 3,000-meter record with a sixth-place finish of 9:43.59.

The 800-meter runners had a productive day, as well, as Ne’Ausha Logan secured a bronze medal with the second-best time of her career, 2:09.77. Erica Winston fell in step behind her at 2:10.88, shaving nearly three seconds off her previous personal record.

Two jumpers added points in the high jump for the Knights. Freshman Allison Lampert produced a career-best day with a sixth-place showing of 1.68m/5-06.00. Sonnisha Williams missed her personal best by half-an-inch with a season-best leap of 1.68m/5-06.00.

Scott, Charles, Sandy Jean and Logan comprised the 4×400 relay that capped the day with a first-place finish with its second-best time of the season, 3:40.83.

UCF now sets its sights on the NCAA Indoor Championships behind held at Arkansas on March 8-9. A season ago, the Knights earned their highest finish in school history (eighth place) at the meet.

WOMEN’S TEAM FINAL

1. UCF – 132.5

2. Memphis – 93

3. UAB – 83 4. East Carolina – 59

5. SMU – 52

6. UTEP – 46

7. Houston – 44

8. Tulsa – 37

9. Southern Miss – 30

10. Tulane – 29

11. Rice – 28

12. Marshall – 26.5

The Knights claim 12 marks that rank among the region’s top 25. Freshman Octavious Freeman, sophomore Aurieyall Scott and senior Sheila Paul hold six of UCF’s region-best seven entries in the 100 and 200 meters and will be joined by sophomore Dominique Booker in the 200.

Freeman won gold in the 100 meters and bronze in the 200 meters at the Conference USA Championships as she heads into the preliminaries with the third-best time in both events. Scott also ranks among the region’s top 10 in both events after emerging as league champion in the 200 and runner-up in the 100. Paul took silver in the 200 to help UCF earn a clean sweep of the podium in the event at the championships.

Sophomore Afia Charles earned her spot for the second-consecutive year in the 400 meters. Freshman Ne’Ausha Logan secured her first appearance at the preliminaries with her personal-best and gold-medalist performance in the 800 meters at the Conference USA Championships.

All-conference selections Jackie Coward and Karessa Farley will represent the Black and Gold in the 100 hurdles while Aisha-Maree Frazier returns to the preliminaries in the 400 hurdles after missing last year’s competition. All three hurdlers earned all-conference distinction a week ago.

Junior Sonnisha Williams will lead UCF’s four entries in the long jump as she currently ranks third in the region in the event. She will be accompanied by all-conference honoree Jacquelyn Gilchrist, Tomika Story and Jen Clayton. Gilchrist and Story will also perform in the triple jump.

Freshman Precious Ogunleye becomes UCF’s first freshman since 2007 to represent the Knights in the throws by earning her spot in both the shot put and discus.

The top 24 finishers in each event will move on to the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 6-9. For more information about the East Preliminaries, visit the meet central page via www.unfospreys.com.

The Knights claimed the title with 160 team points, besting C-USA Indoor Champion East Carolina by nearly 28 points.

Octavious Freeman was named the Freshman of the Meet, Aurieyall Scott won the High Point Scorer of the Meet for the second year in a row and head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert was awarded her third-consecutive Coach of the Year accolade.

Freeman set a meet record, school record, freshman record and personal best in the 100 meters with a blistering performance of 11.09 (+1.5) for first place. The time ranks second in the NCAA and 11th in the world this year. Scott finished in step behind her and also tied the previous meet record of 11.21 (+1.5), which ranks among the top 10 in the NCAA.

Senior Sheila Paul and sophomore Dominique Booker scored points in the 100 meters as well with fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively. Paul registered a season-best time of 11.40, which ranks among the NCAA’s top 25, and Booker clocked 11.59.

As a unit in the 4×100 relay, the group clinched UCF’s first gold medal of the day by churning out a time of 43.47, which fell just .05 shy of the squad’s Conference USA Championship meet record in 2011. The performance ranks among the top 15 in the NCAA this year.

The quartet also shined in the 200 meters as the Knights swept the podium. Scott reclaimed her gold medal in the event with a time of 23.13 (+0.8), which ranks among the top 15 in the NCAA. Paul and Freeman went neck and neck for silver and bronze as both clocked a time of 23.53. Rounding out the bunch, Booker scored points in seventh place with a time of 23.98.

Senior Tomika Story earned all-conference third team honors in the triple jump with a personal-best leap in all conditions of 12.74m/41-09.75 (+2.6). Competing in the event for the first time of her collegiate career, Scott also scored points in eighth place with a mark of 12.25m/40-02.25 (+2.0), which topped her heat.

Junior Sonnisha Williams recorded a personal-best 11.92m/39-01.25 (+1.7) to finish second in her heat behind Scott and 12th overall. Williams also hit a personal-record 1.73m/5-08 in the high jump to match her best showing in the event at the Outdoor Championships in fifth place.

A day removed from setting a personal best in the 800 meters, Ne’Ausha Logan led the finals from start to finish and again shaved nearly two seconds off her PR for the first gold medal of her career with a time of 2:07.25.

Two seniors medaled and recorded times among the NCAA’s top 25 in the 100 hurdles. Jackie Coward retained her title as the 100 hurdles champion by picking up her third gold medal of her career in the event with a time of 13.10 (+1.1), and Karessa Farley posted a season-best time of 13.34 (+1.1) for third place.

Coward also defended her gold medal in the 400 hurdles with a season-best time of 58.35, and fellow senior Aisha-Maree Frazier joined her on the podium with a third-place, season-best time of 59.46.

Satrina Oliveira set a personal best en route to winning her heat and finishing fourth in the discus with a mark of 46.80m/153-06. A day after earning all-conference honors in the shot put, Precious Ogunleye also scored points in the discus with a sixth-place finish of 45.10m/147-11.

Junior Erica Weiss tallied a point in the pole vault with a mark of 3.60m/11-09.75 for eighth place.

The 4×400 relay of Afia Charles, Christal Peterson, Erica Winston and Williams closed out the evening with a season-best time of 3:38.69 for fourth place. Earlier in the day, Charles scored points in the 400 meters with a fifth-place time of 54.03.

Complete coverage of the final day of competition will air on tape delay on Fox Sports Florida on Friday at 2 p.m. and on SportSouth on Sunday at 8 p.m. Up next, the Knights will travel to Jacksonville for the NCAA East Preliminary Round of the Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 24-26.

Champion Event(s)

Team Points

1. UCF 160
2. East Carolina 132.16
3. Southern Miss 81
4. Houston 74
5. Rice 60.50
6. SMU 60
7. UAB 58
8. Memphis 55
9. UTEP 54
10. Tulane 33.33
11. Marshall 28
12. Tulsa 23

Williams impressed in the high jump by tying for second place with a personal-best leap of 1.70m/5-07.

The throwers represented the Black and Gold well as freshman  earned her best finish of the season thus far in the Hammer with a third-place toss of 48.09m/157-09. She went on to record personal bests and fourth-place finishes in both the Shot Put and Discus. She nearly topped the UCF freshman shot put record with a mark of 14.12m/46-04.00 and bested her personal record in the discus by nearly 13 feet with a toss of 47.75m/156-08.

Not to be outdone by her teammate, sophomore  recorded a personal best in the Shot with a throw of 13.92m/45-08.00 for fifth place and recorded her best discus mark of the season (35.90m/117-09).

Seniors and  held their own in the long jump as the top two collegiate finishers in the event behind France’s Eloyse Lesueur and Great Britain’s Jade Johnson. Gilchrist posted a wind-aided 6.16m/20-02.50 (+3.0) with Story right behind her in fourth place with a mark of 6.07m/19-11.00 (+2.9), which is a personal best in all conditions.

Freshman  jumped out to a great start in the 3000 Steeple and never lost her momentum to claim the first win of her collegiate career with a personal-best time of 11:48.06.

In her first appearance in the 3000 Meters this season,  ran a personal-record 11:02.14.

The No. 12 UCF track and field team will split between the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pa., and the Memphis Invitational in Memphis, Tenn., on April 27-28.

Freshman earned herself a spot at the U.S. Olympic Trials in both the 100 and 200 Meters thanks to her buzzworthy performances at the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville on Friday.

In her first 100M race as a Knight, Freeman was not daunted as the only collegian in her heat, blowing by her professional competitors with a new world-leading time of 11.10 (+1.2). Her personal-best performance shattered the Florida Relays, UCF and freshman records and automatically qualifies her for a spot to compete alongside teammate in the event at the Trials this summer.

She struck again in the 200 Meters, this time clocking a personal-best 22.80 (+0.5) for the world’s second-fastest time and the top time in the U.S. Her first-place finish is a new school and freshman record.

Freshman dashed to a season-best time of 11.70 (+0.2) for 16th place overall in the 100 Meters, and junior fell in step behind her in 17th place with the second-fastest time in her heat of 11.72 (+3.4).

Senior finished fourth with a time of 13.37 (-0.5) in the 100 Hurdles, narrowly missing the podium by .01 behind third-place finisher Nike’s Loreal Smith. Coward’s performance ranks among the top 20 in the nation at time of publication. Senior made her return to the track for her first race of 2012 and finished 16th with a time of 13.91 (-1.0).

In her first 400 Hurdles appearance of 2012, Coward led her heat and finished 12th overall with a time of 59.01.

UCF’s jumps crew witnessed the return of two of their top performers in the long jump, and the duo did not disappoint. In her first appearance in the event since claiming All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, junior earned a silver-medal finish in the invite section of the Long Jump with a respectable first attempt of 6.34m/20-9.50. The mark ranks among the nation’s top 10 in the NCAA.

Sophomore also announced her long-awaited return to the long jump with authority, busting out of the gate with a mark of 6.14m/20-01.75. She took bronze in the university section of the event, followed closely by senior fourth-place showing of 6.07m/19-11.00.

Freshman bettered her personal record by more than a foot in the discus with a toss of 43.82m/143-09 for ninth place. Sophomore paced the Knights in the event with a mark of 44.75m/146-10 for fifth place.

Freshman topped her personal record by more almost a minute in the 5000 Meters with a time of 18:15.10. Meanwhile, ran a season-best 2:13.00 in the 800 Meters for the third-fastest time in her heat and 22nd place overall.

The No. 13 UCF track and field team will resume action at the Relays on Saturday with the hammer throw starting things off at 11:30 a.m.

“Today was a good starting point for the season and we’re going to build off of this meet,” UCF head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert said.

UCF shined in the 100 Meters by recording the top-three finishes with times that all rank among the top 10 in the nation at time of publication. Sophomore Dominique Booker led the way with a time of 11.74 (0.9), followed by Amanda Leland’s personal-best 11.76 (1.8) and Sheila Paul rounded out the trio with a time of 11.81 (0.9).

The Knights also clinched three of the top five spots in the 200 Meters with marks that rank among the nation’s top 10. Sheila Paul emerged as UCF’s best finisher of eight competitors with a second-place time of 23.75 (-0.3). Junior Sonnisha Williams fell in step behind her at 23.89 (-0.3) while Booker also finished among the top five with a time of 24.12 (-0.3).

Leland recorded a personal best 24.74 (-0.1) in the race for 10th place and Jen Clayton won her heat with a time of 24.76 for 11th place.

Sophomore Afia Charles came up with a first-place time of 53.73 which currently leads the country in the 400 Meters.

UCF’s jumps crew represented the Knights well by taking gold in both the triple jump and long jump. Jacquelyn Gilchrist bested her personal record in the long jump with a leap of 6.17m/20-03 (0.8), which ranks second in the country, to defend her first-place finish from last year’s meet.

Tomika Story took first place in the triple jump with a wind-aided mark of 12.40m/40-08.25 (2.5). Gilchrist claimed second place in the event with a jump of 12.27m/40-03.25 (+0.0) to rank second in the country.

After clearing the bar and hitting the cushion on landing, Erica Weiss sprang up with a smile on her face and clapped her hands to celebrate her new personal best in the pole vault with a mark of 3.77m/12-04.50. The junior bested her competitor by more than two feet to rank among the top 15 in the country.

Sophomore Destinee Romain earned two third-place finishes on the day in the hammer and the shot put. She topped her personal best in the hammer by nearly 40 feet, recording 48.74/159-11 before posting 12.85m/42-02 in the shot.

In her first collegiate hammer throw appearance, Precious Ogunleye posted a mark of 45.47m/149-02 to fall less than a foot shy of the UCF freshman record. Ogunleye also finished third in the discus with a toss of 42.40m/139-1.

UCF’s distance crew saw a number of personal-best performances. Freshman Cody Castillo had a memorable debut in her first collegiate outdoor meet with two personal-best outings. Castillo earned fourth place to pace five Knights in the 1500 Meters with a time of 4:44.60. She followed that up with a personal record 2:20.28 in the 800 Meters for 10th place.

Jessica Pachay ran a personal best 19:27.08 for fourth place in the 5000 Meters. Erica Winston took fourth place in the 800 Meters with a time of 2:13.84 to qualify as UCF’s best finisher in the race.

UCF’s 4×100 Relay team of Christal Peterson, Tyler Smith, Clayton and Leland combined to run a fourth-place time of 44.84, which at the time of publication ranked sixth in the nation.

UCF closed out the day with the top 4×400 Relay performance as Charles, sophomore Aurieyall Scott, freshman Christal Peterson and sophomore Erica Winston combined to clock 3:42.78, which ranks third in the nation.

Up next, the Knights will host the UCF Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Saturday will also serve as Senior Day to recognize the Knights’ outstanding Class of 2012.