University of Houston Athletics
Houston Opens 2001 Indoor Schedule On January 12
1/10/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
The University of Houston men's and women's track and field teams will open their 2001 indoor season when they host the Leonard Hilton Memorial Indoor Meet on Friday, January 12 at the Bill Yeoman Field House.
The meet will begin Friday at 2:00 p.m. with the women's 20-pound weight throw and women's long jump. The first running events, the men's and women's distance medley relays will start at 4:45 p.m.
Houston will compete against 11 other schools this weekend. The teams are from Hampton, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, Prairie View A&M, Rice, Stephen F. Austin State, Southwest Texas State, Sam Houston State, Texas Southern, UTSA and UT-Arlington.
A special dedication ceremony honoring the late Leonard Hilton will begin at 6:00 p.m. An outstanding distance runner for the Cougars from 1967-71, Hilton passed away on July 4, 2000 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
He earned All-American honors in the three-mile run in 1971 with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships with a time of 13:31.6 and ran the anchor leg on Houston's distance medley relay team that set a world record in 1970. During his UH career, Hilton set school records in five different events.
A graduate of Austin High School in Houston, Hilton became the first Cougar miler to break the four-minute barrier. He accomplished that feat a stunning 32 times.
After completing his running career at Houston, Hilton ran for the 1972 United States Olympic Team at Munich, Germany. He qualified for the team with a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in spring of 1999.
Following his death, Hilton's wife, Christie, and their foster children Elsa and Gabriella Castellon Quisbert, established the Leonard Hilton Scholarship Endowment for Houston's track and field teams.
