University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Head to USATF Outdoor Championships
6/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON -- Two current Houston Cougar student-athletes as well as a former standout and three 2015 signees have earned the opportunity to compete in the 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships from Thursday, June 25 through Saturday, June 27 in Eugene, Oregon.
Cameron Burrell will compete unattached at the 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships after redshirting through the 2015 NCAA Outdoor season. Burrell enters the competition with the 13th best mark among accepted athletes in the long jump at 7.82m. Burrell will need a top-3 finish and a leap of 8.10m or higher to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, in August, and will need to finish in the top-2 to qualify for the Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from July 20-26.
The qualifying mark for the women's triple jump sat at 12.40m, which Tony Burks surpassed at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships when she leaped 12.44m to finish seventh. Burk's mark also qualified her to compete in the NCAA Outdoor West Regional, where she finished 41st.
Burks will compete with the top triple jumpers in the United States between the ages of 14 and 20 years old. The event will consist of a three-jump preliminary round with the top-8 jumpers advancing to the finals. The top-2 finishers after the finals will qualify for the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada held from July 31 through August 2.
Houston track and field alum Chris Carter will be in competition in the men's triple jump at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Carter enters the championships with the eighth-best qualifying mark among declared athletes at 16.71m, which he jumped in Houston on January 31, 2015. Carter will need a top-3 performance at the outdoor championships as well as a jump of 16.90m in order to qualify for the IAAF World Championships.
The future of Cougar track and field looks bright as the squad will be represented with three members of its 2015 signing class at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships. Incoming freshmen John Lewis III (100m), Amere Lattin (110m hurdles) and Gerald Mills (200m) each qualified for their respective events.
Lewis and Lattin enter the outdoor championships with the fourth-fastest times in the 100m dash and 110m hurdles respectively among 14-20 year old athletes at 10.34 for Lewis and 13.75 for Lattin, while Mills sits ninth in the 200m dash at 21.31.
The top-2 times in each of the Cougar signees' respective events will qualify for the Pan American Junior Athletics Championships.
USATF OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Two hours of the first day of the USATF Outdoor Championships will air on Thursday, June 26 at 9 p.m. on NBCSN. Friday's (June 27) broadcast will begin at 3 p.m. and will air on NBC. Saturday's coverage will switch to Universal Sports and will air beginning at 2 p.m., before switching back to NBC on Sunday, June 28 beginning at 3 p.m.
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