Track and Field
- Title:
- Head Coach
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Carl Lewis enters his 13th season at the University of Houston and third as Head Coach of the Track and Field program for the 2025 season. Lewis was named the fourth head coach in program history in July 2022.
2024 SEASON
In its inaugural season in the Big 12, Lewis led the men's track & field program to a sixth place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships including coaching Louie Hinchliffe to a National Championship in the men's 100-meter dash. Shaun Maswanganyi had a stellar senior season as he swept the 100-meter, 200-meter and the 4x100-meter title at Houston's first Big 12 Outdoor Championship to earn Performer of the Year and the High Point Award at the Championship.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, two of Lewis' pupils, Maswanganyi (South Africa, silver) and Hinchliffe (Great Britain, bronze), earned podium finishes in the men's 4x100-meter relay for their respective countries. Maswanganyi and Hinchliffe each qualified to the men's 100-meter semifinal and Maswanganyi earned a semifinal finish in the 200-meter. Another one of Lewis' pupils, Cecilia Tamayo-Garza, represented Mexico at the Olympic Games in the 100 and 200-meters.
2023 SEASON
During Houston's final season in The American, the men had six All-America honors, 13 NCAA Regional qualifiers and 21 All-Conference Awards. During the indoor season, the Cougars finished second at the AAC Championships with Shaun Maswanganyi being named the American's Most Valuable Performer for the second-straight year. The Cougars won five different event titles as 15 athletes earned All-Conference honors in 11 different events. The women's side has three All-America honors, 10 NCAA West Preliminary Round qualifiers and 18 All-Conference Awards, and won four individual conference titles, as well as the 4x400-meter conference title.
2022 SEASON
Coming Soon.
2021 SEASON
Coming soon.
2020 SEASON
During the 2020 season the Cougars sprinters made big strides, helping the Cougars sweep The American Indoor Track & Field Championships for the second consecutive season. The Houston Cougars were on pace to have yet another outstanding outdoor season before competition was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2017, 2018, 2019 SEASONS
The Cougars continued to have success in the sprints during both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons at the Cougars claimed their second straight NCAA title in the 4x100-meter relay and earned back-to-back third-place finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships anchored by strong performances in the sprints and relays.
Lewis played a key role in the Cougars 2017 Men's 4x100-meter Relay NCAA Championships. Working with the sprinters, Lewis' team of John Lewis III, Mario Burke, Jacarias Martin and Cameron Burrell ran 38.44 to break the school record and claim the gold medals. Lewis' athletes in the sprints and jumps claimed nine individual American Athletic Conference Championships in 2017, while Burrell finished as the runner up at each of the indoor 60-meter dash and outdoor 100-meter dash national championships.
2013-2016 SEASONSIn his first two seasons, Lewis helped lead the Cougars to nine individual American Athletic Conference Championships and NCAA runner-up finished in the 60-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay in 2016.
ABOUT CARL LEWIS
Lewis is known as one of the greatest athletes in the world winning 10 Olympic medals, nine of those gold, and 10 world championship medals. He still holds the school records for the indoor 55-meter dash (6.07) and both indoor and outdoor long jump records 8.56m (28’-1”) and 8.62m (28’-3.5”). A six-time All-American, Lewis won six national championships and nine individual conference championships during his two seasons at Houston.
Lewis came to Houston to run for head coach Tom Tellez in 1979. A year later, he appeared on the national scene when he qualified for the United States team for the 1980 Olympics in the long jump and 4x100 relay team. Since then, he competed in four Olympic Games as a member of team USA.
He held the world record in the men’s 100-meter dash in 1991, until Burrell broke the record in 1994. The two were also a part of the US 4x100 relay team that broke the world record during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Carl Lewis’ achievements are unprecedented in track and field: He is one of two athletes to win nine Olympic gold medals. Similarly, he is one of two to win four golds in the same event. He also won 10 medals, including eight golds, at the World Outdoor Championships, the most by any athlete in the world. Growing up in Willingboro, N.J., Lewis came from an athletic family, and yet he blossomed late in his high school career.
The following year, as a freshman at the University of Houston, he qualified for the Olympic team in the long jump. Because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics, Lewis had to wait four years for his Olympic glory.
By 1984, he had already ranked number one in the world in both the 100 meters and long jump for three consecutive years. In Los Angeles, he matched Jesse Owens’ 1936 feat with four gold medals in the same events -- the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. Lewis’ talent was matched by his longevity. At the 1988 Olympics, he won the 100 meters and long jump. In 1992, he again won the long jump as well as the 4x100m, anchoring the U.S. team to a world record of 37.40.
In 1996, in his final Olympics, Lewis had a dramatic farewell, winning his fourth-consecutive gold medal in the long jump. At age 30, he had one of his greatest achievements, breaking the world 100m record with a time of 9.86 while winning the event at the 1991 World Championships. At that same meet, he had one of his greatest disappointments, losing his long jump streak of 65 consecutive victories to Mike Powell. It was an occasion on which Lewis recorded his longest jump ever -- 29’ 1 1/4” -- while Powell was breaking Bob Beamon’s legendary record with a jump of 29’ 4 1/2”.
