University of Houston Athletics
Postseason Begins with 2016 American Indoor Championships
2/25/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON - The 2016 Indoor Track & Field regular season has come to an end, and the Houston Cougar men's and women's teams are on the road to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in the 2016 American Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships to be held Feb. 28-29, at the Birmingham Crossplex.
The Houston men will look to defend their 2015 American title, while the women are primed to improve on a seventh-place finish from a year ago, as action begins with the women's pentathlon 60-meter hurdles at 9 a.m. CT. The men's heptathlon kicks off at 11 a.m., with the 60-meter dash.
Sunday's individual events kick off at 10 a.m. with the men's pole vault, while the running events are set to begin at 12:15 p.m. with the women's and men's mile run trials.
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The second and final day of The American Championships kicks off at 9 a.m. with the final three events of the men's heptathlon beginning with the 60-meter hurdles. The men's and women's high jumps start the individual events at 9:45 a.m., while the first gun will sound on the day's individual running events at 11:30 a.m., for the women's mile run final.
Each day of The 2016 American Indoor Championships will air live via The American Digital Network free of charge and can be found by clicking HERE. The American Conference will also provide up to the minute updates, live results, and more which can all be found by visiting TheAmerican.org/ITF or by clicking HERE.
The Houston men will look to score big in the sprints, especially in the 60-meter dash where the Cougars finished the regular season with six times inside the top eight in the conference. Junior Cameron Burrell holds the top American time this season at 6.55, while LeShon Collins sits third (6.64), Mario Burke fourth (6.69), Marcus McWilliams fifth (6.81), John Lewis III seventh (6.84) and Xavier Floyd eighth (6.87).
On the women's side of the 60, Tori Williams currently holds the fourth-fastest time this season at 7.46, while the 2015 champion in the event, Bria Carter, holds the seventh spot (7.51), and Kelli Hardnett sits eighth (7.56) heading into the weekend.
Three Cougars are primed to score for the men in the 200-meter dash as Issac Williams holds the third-fastest time this season at 21.36, while freshman Jacarias Martin is fifth in 21.48 and junior Curtis Brown holds the sixth spot at 21.53. Tori Williams will look to score for the women in the 200 after posting the fourth-best time in the conference during the regular season at 23.89.
Houston currently holds the three fastest regular season times in the men's 60-meter hurdles with McWilliams taking the top spot in 7.72 and teammates Williams (7.79) and Amere Lattin (7.91) a close second and third, respectively.
Junior distance runner Brian Barraza looks to score big for the Cougars holding the top times this season in the mile run and the 3,000-meter run. Barraza broke his own school record in the 3K when he ran 7:59.66 at the Husky Classic, and clocked a 4:04.42 in the mile to claim the top spot as well.
The women's distance team will look to get points from Selena Sierra and Maddie Brown in the 5,000-meter run with each holding the fourth- and fifth-best times, respectively, this season. The two are separated by just seven-hundredths of a second at 17:26.89 and 17:26.96 as they battled for the school record all season.
The men will look to get quite a few points from the field events, having three athletes in the top eight of the long jump with Burrell leading the way at 24'9.75" (7.56m), McWilliams in seventh (23'2.75", 7.08m) and Antwan Dickerson in eighth (22'11", 6.98m).
In the shot put, Felipe Valencia has been the top of the class for the majority of the season with a top throw of 59'1.25" (18.01m), while junior, transfer Alex Garza sits fourth at 55'6.5" (16.93m).
For the women, sophomore Diayja Sheppard currently sits in the top three of the high jump after a season best jump of 5'10" (1.78m) at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational, while Felicienne Axel will look to continue an impressive freshman campaign when she enters the triple jump with the fourth-best mark this season at 40'2.25" (12.25m).
Last year's men's indoor team title came down to the final event, the 4x400-meter relay, in which the Cougars crossed the line first to win the event and clinch the championship. Houston figures to finish near the top again this season and has the second best relay time at 3:12.91, while the women will enter the final race with the third best time at 3:44.13.
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NATIONALLY RANKED SIGNING CLASS
The Cougars made noise throughout the entire offseason when the men's signing class was ranked as the No. 2 class in the nation by Flotrack last July. The current freshmen on campus are led by three incoming student-athletes on the MileSplit All-American team. Marcus McWilliams (110m hurdles), Gerald Mills (200m) and John Lewis III (100m) all earned All-America honors, while distance runner Jahnavi Schneider was named as the No. 3 cross country recruit in the state of Texas by TxRunning.com.
UP NEXT FOR HOUSTON
Houston returns home to host the Houston Invitational on Friday, Jan. 29 and Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Yeoman Fieldhouse. The Houston Invitational will be the second of three meets the Cougars will hold on their home track during the indoor season.
FOLLOW THE COUGARS
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Players Mentioned
