UTEP's Arianne Morais makes quick work of javelin field to grab gold at CUSA championships

Being a whole lot better than everyone else is a good place to be just about any time, and UTEP javelin thrower Arianne Morais took full advantage of that in the first day of the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Coming in with a season's best more than 15 feet better than the field, which ranks her third nationally, but with a twice-surgically repaired elbow that has been bothering her in recent weeks, she approach the day with caution.

More: Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships live results, heat sheets

She could afford to. Morais took three throws, set a CUSA record with a toss of 185-feet, 5-inches (56.53 meters), won by 23 feet and took the rest of the competition off while the battle for silver went on without her.

That was one of nine finals contested on Thursday's first day and it was the one UTEP won.

"I felt OK about it," Morais said. "I felt a little nervous going into the competition because my elbow was bothering me in the warmups. I wanted to keep it short and sweet, but I'm glad I got a decent throw out there.

"The fact that I could throw 56 with an arm that bothers me is promising, I guess. When I'm healthy I could throw way further. I feel good about the fact I threw 56 (meters), now I'm hoping my arm gets better so I can throw even better."

That wasn't entirely the plan coming in, but it was an easy improvisation when her elbow didn't feel perfect.

"I was hoping it was going to recover by today so I could compete normally, but in warmups it didn't feel great," she said. "It's Conference USA, I had to show up and get some throws out there.

"Minimal throws, two or three, then be done."

That was plenty enough in an event where it only takes one.

UTEP picked up another gold when Sandra Maiyo was a wire-to-wire winner in the 10,000 meters that closed Thursday's competition.

Cadet off to big start in Day 1 of on decathlon

UTEP's Jalen Cadet's decathlon got off to a great start, and that was before he set a personal best in the opening 100 meters and later took third in the open long jump. Thursday night his family surprised him by flying in from the Bahamas to watch him pull off one of the busiest meets imaginable.

"It's the first time my family has seen me compete since I came to college, I'm now a junior so that's a long time," Cadet said.

What they saw was him score a first-day decathlon personal best of 3,972 points, giving him a more than 500-point lead over Liberty's Anthony Bryan (3,457). That is a commanding lead through five of 10 events, though he is a stronger Day 1 decathlete than he is in the more technical Day 2.

He later took seventh in the open javelin and was third in the long jump, one spot behind teammate A'Tiq Muhammed.

Friday "was going to be a good day, I'm in a good place," Cadet said of his decathlon performance. "I want to score more than 7,000 (points) to put me in the top five in UTEP history. This might be my last dec, next year I was planning on doing springs and jumps, but with the way things are going now I don't know if that's going to happen."

Cadet will get back to work Saturday with the final five events of the decathlon as well as a 200 preliminary. He will run on the 4x100 Sunday and he hopes in the 200 final as well.

"If the team needs the points, I'm down to do it," he said.

UTEP had 31 points through the first five of 21 finals, which put them an early third behind Sam Houston (48) and favored Liberty (42).

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP's Arianne Morais makes quick work of javelin field to grab gold