Men's Track Honored in Senior Salute

May 1, 2020

TAMPA, Fla. – The University of Tampa Athletics would like to celebrate the careers and accomplishments of the men's track this week. Due to their season getting cut short, we will honor each student-athlete who will not get a normal senior salute at the end of the season.

The men's track team will graduate two runners, Tyler Roberts and Sam Schaeffer, both of which also competed for Tampa's cross country team. Both runner's collected an impressive list of accolades during their times as Spartans, including both making appearances at NCAA Division II South Region Championships placing them both amongst the top runners in the region and nation.

Tyler Roberts

Roberts, a distance runner from Melbourne, Florida, will graduate from the University of Tampa with a degree in Cybersecurity. Running for both the track and cross country teams at Tampa, Roberts collected some great times. Among those times include boasting an impressive 10K (XC) time of just 34:56.0, a time which would place him 69th at the NCAA Division II South Region Cross Country Championship in the Fall of 2019. A few of Roberts' career fastest times include running a 4:13.84 1500 while at the USF Invitational in 2017, a 20:23.1 6K (XC) at the 2017 Border Clash XC Meet later that same year, and a time of 23:55.3 7.25K (XC), earning him a second place spot at the 2018 Border Clash XC Meet. Roberts has competed in three NCAA Divisions II South Region Cross Country Championships and four Sunshine State Conference Cross Country Championships, notably finishing 8th in the 8000m 2018 SSC Championship.

Sam Schaeffer

Schaeffer, a distance runner from Quakertown, Pennsylvania, will graduate from the University of Tampa with a degree in Marine Biology. In addition to his time on the track team, he ran for Tampa on the cross country team, competing at two NCAA Division II South Region Cross Country Championships and three Sunshine State Conference Cross Country Championships during his cross country seasons. Schaeffer nabbed a career best 10k (XC) time of 22:55.6 at the South Region Championships in 2018, earning him 61st place, while helping his team to a seventh place finish out of 18 teams. In other notable feats, the Spartan was able to post a career fastest 26:17.8 8k (XC) at the 2018 Bobcat Invitational, individually placing 25th out of over 160 runners, and helping Tampa to place fifth out of 18 teams. Schaeffer was able to round out his track career with some fastest career times earlier this short 2020 season, a 9:22.42 3000 meter at the Tampa Track Classic #1 and just seven days later achieved another career time of 15:54.87 5000 meter at the Tampa Track Classic #2.

The University of Tampa Athletic Department would like to extend congratulations to the men's track Class of 2020 for their impressive careers, academically and athletically. As these men go on to the next chapter of their lives, we wish them all the best, and we thank them for their dedication to the program, the school, and their sports.

Please join the Tampa Spartans as we honor the seniors for each of our spring sports teams. As a result of the cancelation of all spring games and competition, typical senior-honoring events have also been canceled. We will select a different team each week for which we will honor those graduating this year.