University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Ready for The American Outdoor Championships
5/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Meet Schedule | Live Results | Live Video
STORRS, CONN. - The Houston Cougar men's and women's track and field teams will head north to compete in the 2015 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships hosted by the University of Connecticut from Thursday, May 14 through Sunday, May 17, in Storrs, Conn.
Action on Thursday, May 14 is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. CT with the men's hammer throw. The women's heptathlon kicks off at 11 a.m. CT with the 100m hurdles, with times being decided for the high jump, shot put, and 200m dash later in the day. The men's heptathlon also begins Thursday with the 100m dash at Noon CT, and will also have times decided later in the day for the long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m dash. The men's and women's 10,000m run will be held at 5:30 p.m., and 6:15 p.m., CT respectively.
Friday's portion of the outdoor championships will see the conclusion of the women's heptathlon and men's decathlon as well as three field events and three running events. The morning begins at 9 a.m. CT with the men's discus. The heptathlon long jump starts at 11 a.m. CT and concludes with the javelin and 800m run, while the pentathlon begins at the same time with the 110m hurdles, followed by the discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500m run. Friday's running events will consist of the qualifying rounds of the 800m run (2 p.m. for women; 2:20 p.m. for men), the 400m hurdles (2:40 p.m., for women; 2:55 p.m., for men) and the 200m dash (3:10 p.m., for women; 3:30 p.m., for men).
Saturday's field event action kicks off at 8:30 a.m. CT with the men's javelin and will continue throughout the day with the men's and women's long jump, women's javelin, men's pole vault and men's high jump. Running events will see the trials of the men's and women's 1500m run beginning at 1:30 p.m. CT followed by 100m and 110m hurdles, 400m dash and 100m dash throughout the day. The finals of the women's and men's 3000m steeplechase will conclude Saturday's action at 3:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. respectively.
The American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships conclude on Sunday, May 17, beginning with the men's shot put at 9 a.m. CT. The men's and women's triple jump will follow the shot put as well as the women's shot put and high jump competitions.
The majority of running event finals will begin Sunday morning at 10 a.m. CT with the women's and men's 4x100m relay. The meet will conclude with the men's and women's 4x400m relay at 1:05 p.m. CT with an awards ceremony to follow at 1:45 p.m.
The Houston men claimed the inaugural 2014 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, and won their first indoor title in the new conference in the last week of February this year. The Cougars scored 156.50 points at the 2014 championships to beat Memphis and edged out Tulsa and UConn in a thriller at the indoor meet to claim its 28th and 29th team conference championships.
Junior sprinter LeShon Collins returns to the Outdoor Championships for Houston after taking gold in the 100m dash and as the first leg of the 4x100m relay, as well as claiming a second place finish in the 200m dash. The former Glasgow High School standout currently ranks second in the conference in each of the 100m and 200m dash, and runs the opening leg in the conference's top 4x100m (40.10), and second best 4x400m relay (3:11.16) teams.
Junior hurdler Issac Williams will also be looking to defend his title when he runs the 110m hurdles at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships. Williams won the event in 13.94 in Orlando, Fla., last year and enters this year's competition with the top time in the conference this season at 13.56.
The Cougar women will look to improve on a fourth place finish from a year ago in which the team scored 111.20 points to finish behind SMU, UCF and UConn.
Senior hurdler Sade-Mariah Greenidge currently ranks second in the conference this season in the 100m hurdles and third in the 400m hurdles. Greenidge claimed the individual title in the 100m hurdles last season after running a 13.48, while the Bridgetown, Barbados native finished second in the 400m hurdles in 59.94.
Freshman high jumper Diayja Sheppard will look to make an immediate impact for the women's squad in her first outdoor championships. The Arlington, Texas native currently ranks third among American Athletic Conference athletes at 1.75m.
CONFERENCE RECORDS WITHIN REACH
Heading into the conference championship meet, eight Cougars sit in reach of American Athletic Conference Meet Championship records after posting marks and times currently better than the records throughout the season.
In the sprints and hurdles, Collins posted a 10.35 at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 16, which sits better than the current conference best mark set by teammate Cameron Burrell at 10.44 last season. Williams (13.56 in 110m hurdles; Mt. SAC Relays) and Greenidge (100m hurdles; Mt. SAC Relays) are each under the current top marks in their respective events.
In the distance, sophomore Brian Barraza currently has marks in the 1500m run (3:44.95) and the 5000m run (13:56.76) that would set conference records this week. Senior Drevan Anderson-Kaapa's 800m time of 1:49.92 would best the record set by LaForrest Church of Memphis (1:50.21) in 2014.
Sheppard's top mark in the high jump would better the previous best set by Courtney Anderson of USF last season, while junior Damon Thompson's hammer throw mark of 193'6" is better than the previous mark, set by Josh Province of Cincinnati by nearly four feet.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
All four days of the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships will be streamed live on The American Digital Network. The live video feed can be found by clicking here.
Live results will be made available courtesy of Mile Split Connecticut. Results can be found by visiting CT.MileSplit.Com and following the appropriate links, or by clicking here.
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