University of Houston Athletics
Outdoor Season Opens with UTSA Invitational
3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
San Antonio â€" Just over two weeks removed from a Men's American Athletic Conference Indoor Championship, the Houston Cougar men's and women's track and field teams turn their sights on the outdoor crown with the beginning of the outdoor portion of the 2015-16 schedule at the UTSA Invitational, to be held March 18-19, in San Antonio, Texas.
Action begins on the first day of the 2-day meet with the women's hammer throw (men to follow) and men's javelin (women to follow) at Noon on Friday, March 18. From there the women's and men's discus will be held at 3 p.m., followed by a pair of running events, the men's and women's 2000m steeplechase at 7 p.m., and the men's and women's 5,000m run at 7:40 p.m.
Saturday's action features the remainder of the field events beginning at 11 a.m., with the men's pole vault, women's high jump, men's shot put and men's and women's long jump. The gun will sound on the first running event of the afternoon, the women's 4x100-meter relay at 2 p.m., with a rolling schedule of running events to follow.
American Athletic Conference Indoor Champion in the shot put, and sophomore Felipe Valencia, returns to action for the Cougars at the UTSA Invite. Valencia is scheduled to compete in the shot put on Saturday, an event in which he placed sixth at the outdoor conference meet during his freshman season.
In total, 24 Cougars will make their outdoor debuts at the season's first meet of the year including freshman Brian Bell who has already made a huge impact on the program in just the three months he has been competing. Bell, who will compete in the 1500-meter run on Saturday, set the program record for the indoor 800-meters when he ran 1:48.78 at the indoor championships.
Tori Williams returns for the Cougars, in hopes to continue what has been an impressive junior season through the indoor slate. Williams scored points in each the 60-meter dash, and 400-meter dash during the indoor championships, and is scheduled to be in competition in the outdoor 200-meter dash this weekend, where she placed sixth as a sophomore in 2015's outdoor championships.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
Live stats will be provided for each day of the 2016 UTSA Invitational, and can be found by visiting GoUTSA.Com and following the appropriate links, or by clicking HERE.
Fans are also encouraged to follow the Cougars on twitter @UHCougarsTF for up to the minute tweets of live results and updates.
UP NEXT FOR HOUSTON
The Cougars return to Houston to compete in the Rice Victor Lopez Classic from March 24-26. First day action at the classic will be primarily high school events, with collegiate action kicking off Friday, March 25.
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.
FOLLOW THE COUGARS
Fans can keep up with the latest in University of Houston Cougar athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook.com/HoustonAthletics), Twitter (@UHCougars), Instagram (houstoncougars) and YouTube.com (Youtube.com/UHAthletics). In addition, the Track and Field team has established its own official Facebook (facebook.com/HoustonCougarTrackandField) and Twitter pages ().
Players Mentioned
