UTEP’s Erma Gene Evans broke two records sparking the Miners conference title hopes in Houston, Texas, Friday.

Evans reestablished her own Saint Lucia national standard and the meet mark in the javelin on day two of the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Her throw of 185-2 (56.45) was 25 feet further than the second place finisher and is the second-best throw in the NCAA this season.

UTEP sits in third place with 36 points, 18.5 points behind leader Rice. They will have their work cut out if they are going to make a run for their first-ever title Saturday, after advancing 11 through the preliminaries. Rice had 14 move on.

UTEP collected six points with Keisha Walkes’ third-place showing in the shot put. She posted a regional mark of 48-10 (14.88) -- the third-best throw in school history.

Megan Chojnacki took eighth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, running the second-best time in school history in 11:30.11.

Freshman Terry Contreras tied for fifth in the high jump with a clearance of 5-5 (1.65).

In the preliminaries, the Miners qualified four athletes in the 1,500-meter run with Fatimoh Muhmmed taking the poll with a time of 4:37.20. She also ran the top time in the 800, finishing in a regional time of 2:08.92.

Halimat Ismaila posted the quickest time in the 400-meter dash, racing to a 53.79 finish.

Other Miners to advance included Kelly Young (800, 1500), Delia Cesar (1500), Jipchirchir Kigen (1500), Oludamola Osayomi (60, 200), Chasity Ross (400 hurdles) and Ismaila (200).

The Miners did suffer a two setbacks. Defending 400 champion Olatunde Okusanya was injured during her preliminary and was not able to finish. She also missed the prelims of the 2000. In addition, Nelly Tchayem missed scoring in the long jump, taking ninth.

The men’s team took three gold medals and had one silver scoring 49 points on day two. The Miners are in third place, with Houston leading the competition with a tally of 73.

Japheth Ng'ojoy repeated as the meet champion in the 10,000-meter run, finishing nearly a minute ahead of the nearest competition. He crossed in 29:58.42.

Patrick Mutai took his second gold in the 3,000-meter steeplechase ahead of teammate Nicodemus Ng'etich. Mutai was timed in 9:01.77 and Ng’etich in 9:18.54.

Alex van der Merwe won his second-consecutive title in the javelin. He marked 218-5 (66.58).

Other point winners for UTEP included Hans Eriksson in the hammer (fourth; 185-8; 56.59), Bobby Gamboa in the pole vault (sixth, 13-7 1/4; 4.16), Tufick Shadrawy in the long jump (seventh, 21-8 1/4; 6.61) and Daniel Lujan in the decathlon (eighth, 5484 points).

UTEP advanced Elias Koech (400), Daniel Ward (200, 400), Donald Buckram (60) and Dominic Kiprono Tanui (800) through Friday’s preliminaries.

The C-USA Championships run through Saturday.