University of Houston Athletics
Houston Hosts Leonard Hilton Memorial Invite
1/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON - The Houston Cougar men's and women's track and field teams will host the annual 2015 Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational, named after the great Cougar distance runner, on Friday, Jan. 16 at the Yeoman Fieldhouse on campus.
The Invitational will consist of 12 collegiate teams including Alcorn State, Incarnate Word, Jackson State, Loyola, New Orleans, Nicholls State, Rice, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern (N.O.), Texas Southern and Texas Wesleyan with nine club teams also making an appearance.
Action is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., with the women's long jump, and will continue throughout the day with the running events slated for a 1 p.m., start.
Carl Lewis INIVITATIONAL AND JOE DELOACH YOUTH MEET
Houston will end the weekend by hosting the Carl Lewis Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 17, and the Joe Deloach Youth Meet on Sunday, Jan. 18.
LAST TIME OUT
Houston broke two school records (Issac Williams-60m hurdles and Damon Thompson-Weight Throw) and set 24 personal records en route to an impressive day in the Houston Indoor Opener on Friday, Jan. 9. The Cougars finished with eight individual victories and 24 top-3 finishes on the day.
ABOUT LEONARD HILTON
Leonard Hilton came to the University of Houston from Houston's Austin High School. An outstanding distance runner for the Cougars from 1967-71, Hilton was an All-American and school record-setting runner. Hilton earned All-America honors in the 3-mile run in 1971 with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
His performance at the NCAA meet came after he set school records in five different events. He holds school records in the mile (3:59.64), two-mile run (8:42.3), three-mile run (13:04.3) and the six-mile run (28:30). In addition to those records, Hilton ran the anchor leg on Houston's 1970 distance medley relay team that set the current school record of 9:34.0.
He is the only UH runner and first Texan to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile and attained the feat 32 times. After completing his running career at Houston, Hilton ran for the 1972 United States Olympic Team in Munich, Germany. He qualified for the team with a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
During his running career, Hilton was a two-time American champion in the mile in 1973 and 1975. In 1970, as part of his training, Hilton entered and won the American National Marathon.
After winning the mile for the second time at the USA Championships in 1975, Hilton helped form the Houston Harriers as a national and international championship caliber running club.
Hilton earned his degree in engineering from Houston and later served as vice president of operations with Kinder Morgan Energy and Enron Corp.
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