University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
Charlie Thomas Invitational
Selena Sierra Breaks Indoor 5000m Record
2/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON -- For the second time this season the women's indoor 5000m school record has been broken by a Houston Cougar women's distance runner, as junior Selena Sierra ran 17:26.89 at the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station, Texas on Friday.
Sierra edged out her teammate Maddie Brown by just seven hundredths of a second to claim second in the event. Brown, the previous school record holder who set the bar at 17:35.20 to claim the honor on Jan. 22 at the Rod McCravy Memorial Invitational also ran under the time at 17:26.96 to finish third on Friday.
Sophomore Maria Gonzales finished 10th in the event in 18:52.95, while the women's distance medley relay team opened the meet with a fourth place finish in 12:01.23.
Day two of the meet figures to be an action-packed day, with the heptathlon resuming for its final three at 10:30 a.m., leading up to the remainder of the meet kicking off at 12:30 p.m. with the men's long jump and the women's 60-meter dash.
NOTABLE COUGARS
A number of Cougars ranked in the top-50 in the nation are scheduled to be in competition this weekend. Though the nation's leader in the 60 Cameron Burrell will not compete in the event, the junior will be in action in the invitational long jump.
Also in the field events, the nation's No. 24 high jumper, Diayja Sheppard, will be back in action after having the week off, while in the shot put No. 32 Felipe Valencia will return to action after a week of training.
Houston's trio of hurdlers will again be on display in the 60 meter hurdles. No. 17 Issac Williams, No. 34 Amere Lattin and No. 43 Marcus McWilliams are all scheduled to be in action on Saturday.
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
The Cougars head west to Albuquerque, N.M., to compete in the Don Kirby Elite Invitational hosted by the University of New Mexico. The 2-day meet is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13.
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Players Mentioned
