University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
NCAA Midwest Regionals
Stanford Routt defends Midwest Regional 200-meter Championship
5/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
May 29, 2004
College Station, Texas - All-American Stanford Routt successfully defended his 200-meter Midwest Regional Championship when he blasted out of the starting blocks and blazed to a career-best wind-aided time of 20.03 seconds in the finals on Saturday night.
"This race was personal for me," Routt said. "I went out and attacked the curve really well so that I could get to the straightaway as fast as I could. The last 75 yards or so, I just made sure I kept putting my feet down as quickly as possible.
"This race was personal to me," Rout said. "I had lost to (Jabari Fields of TCU) at the Conference USA Championships two weeks ago and I had lost to (Brendan Christian of Texas) in high school.
"I just concentrated on winning the race because I knew that if I won, the time would take care of itself. This was by far my best time even though it was wind-aided."
Routt won the race by 16/100 of a second ahead of Christian and 27/100 of a second ahead of Fields. Christian had a time of 20.19 seconds, Fields had a time of 20.30 and Texas Tech's Albert Booker finished in fourth place with a time of 20.69 seconds and UTEP's Daniel Ward finished in fifth place with a time of 20.75 seconds.
"He is finally running like we want him to run instead of how he wanted to run," Houston head coach Leroy Burrell said. "Last year, he would press a lot and tighten up in the final 75 or so meters of the race. This year, he is relaxing and letting his speed take over down the straightaway. He is running really well right now."
Andrew Carruthers also qualified to compete in the 400-meter hurdles after a seventh-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles earlier.
"I was a little nervous because my back was up against the wall," Carruthers said. "But, I feel like I did pretty well and can run a much better race at the NCAA Championships."
Carruthers had a third-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 51.08 seconds, just 5/100 of a second shy of equaling his career best time he established last year.
"I was running in lane eight on the outside and all of the other top runners were behind me at the start," Carruthers. "I went out too hard and struggled to finish the race. I ran the first 300 meters at a fast pace, but . I just didn't have enough left in the final 100 meters."
Despite competing in just his second outdoor meet of the season, Vincent Marshall qualified to compete at the NCAA Championships with a fifth place finish in the triple jump after recording a career-best leap of 52' 2 ?" in the triple jump. He became the first Cougar to qualify to compete in that event at the NCAA Championships since Don Parrish earned All-American honors in 1989.
Houston's 4x100-meter relay team of Routt, Preston Perry, Brandon Womack and Carey LaCour finished in fourth place with a season-best time of 40.09 seconds. Nebraska won the race with a time of 39.62 seconds, while TCU was second in 39.67 seconds and UTEP finished in third place with a time of 39.78 seconds.
Alicia Cave also qualified to compete in the women's 100-meter hurdles after a fifth-place finish with a time of 13.55 seconds. Priscilla Lopes of Nebraska won the race with a time of 12.77 seconds. Raisin McIntosh of Texas was the runner-up with a time of 12.85 seconds and Nichole Denby of Texas finished in third place with a time of 13.00 seconds. Funmi Jimoh of Rice finished in fourth place with a time of 13.77 seconds.
The Lady Cougar 4x100-meter relay tandem of Alicia Cave, Lisa Wilson, Keisha Howard and LaDedra Guy finished in sixth-place with a time of 45.03 seconds. Texas won the race with a time of 43.34 seconds. Baylor was the runner-up with 44.46 seconds, TCU finished in third place with a time of 44.59 seconds.
In the women's 400-meter dash, Keisha Howard finished in ninth place with a time of xx. Sanya Richards of Texas won the race with a time of 55.47.
LaDedra Guy ended her freshman campaign with a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash. Guy had a wind-aided time (+5.5) of 11.40 seconds. Marshavet Hooker of Texas won the race in 11.18 seconds, while Laverne Jones of Oklahoma had a time of 11.23 seconds and Shana Robinson of Tulsa finished in third place with a time of 11.30 seconds. Texas Southern's Tremedia Brice had a time of 11.33 seconds to finish in fourth placel, while Nina Mayes of Rice finished in fifth place with a time of 11.34 seconds.
In the men's 110-meter hurdles, Carruthers finished in seventh place with a time of 13.98 seconds. Jermaine Cooper of Texas won the race with a time of 13.62 seconds, while Nenad Lencar of Nebraska finished in second place and the other three qualifiers were Ryan Harlan of Rice, Wichita State's Shannon Armstrong and Ben Wiggins of Rice.
Caresir Hamilton had a 12th place finish in the women's high jump after she cleared a career-best 5'8 ?" (1.74 meters). Hamilton bettered her previous career best by ? inch. All-American heptathlete Krystal Ward was trying to qualify in her second event, but missed all three of her attempts a 5'8 ?". She ended the meet tied for 21st place after clearing the opening height of 5'6" (1.69 meters).
Houston also finished seventh in the men's 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:11.34. The team consisted of Sam Fobbs, Carey LaCour, Michael Francis and Stanford Rout. Baylor won the relay with a time of 3:04.22, while Minnesota as second with a time of 3:05.47.
In the men's team scoring, Houston scored 30.25 points to finish 10th in the team standings. Nebraska won the men's team title with 86.25 points, while Minnesota was second with 68.25 points and SMU was third with 57.75 points.
The Lady Cougars scored 12 points to finish in 23rd place. Texas won the women's team title with a 110 points, while Nebraska was second with 105 points. Kansas State finished in third place with 35.50 points.
Players Mentioned
