The third time is certainly a charm. The No. 18 UCF track and field team won its third-straight Conference USA Outdoor Championship on Sunday to become just the third team in the league to ever accomplish a three-peat. Along the way, the Knights produced nine champions and earned 18 all-conference honors.

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)

  • Octavious Freeman 4×100 relay, 100 meters
  • Dominique Booker 4×100 relay
  • Aurieyall Scott 4×100 relay, 200 meters
  • Sheila Paul 4×100 relay
  • Ne’Ausha Logan 800 meters
  • Jackie Coward 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles

    • 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