University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
UTSA Invitational
Cougars Win Six Individual Titles at UTSA
3/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
San Antonio â€" The Houston Cougar men's and women's track and field teams brought home six individual championships, as well as wins from each of the men's and women's 4x100-meter relays on opening weekend of the outdoor season at the UTSA Invitational, in San Antonio, Texas.
Sophomore Tonyecia Burks opened the second day of competition at the UTSA Invite with a big win in the triple jump. With the wind playing havoc all afternoon, Burks jumped 40'-2.75" (12.26m) to claim first by half of a foot. Freshman Felicienne Axel also finished in the top-5 of the event with a jump of 39'-3.75" (11.98m).
Freshman Amere Lattin gave the men's team their first win in the running events with an impressive debut in the 110-meter hurdles. Lattin ran the only sub-14 second race at 13.92 to take gold in the event. On the women's side, in the 200-meter dash, senior Kelli Hardnett opened her final outdoor campaign with a win in 23.71.
The Cougars swept first place in each of the men's and women's 100-meter dashes. Junior Bria Carter won the women's race in 11.57, narrowly beating teammate Tori Williams who ran 11.58, while freshman Mario Burke won the men's edition in 10.34. James Arnett (10.64) and Xavier Floyd (10.80) finished third and fifth respectively for the men.
The day began for the Cougars in dominating fashion for each of the women's and men's 4x100-meter relay squads. The team of Carter, Burks, Williams and Hardnett clocked a 45.13 in the 400-meter relay to win by nearly a full second against Wichita State's squad. Burke, Arnett, LeShon Collins and Cameron Burrell clocked the only sub-40 second men's relay, finishing in 39.86 to beat SFA's top relay squad who ran 41.04.
Freshman Brian Bell gave Houston their sixth and final win of the afternoon. The school record holder in the indoor 800-meters, clocked a 4:00.91 1,500-meter run to win the first outdoor competition of his collegiate career. Fellow freshman Cameron Laverty placed fourth in the 1,500 with a time of 4:04.45.
The men turned in six top-5 finishes in the field events, led by freshman Cameron Prejean who took third in the long jump at 23'0.5" (7.02m) and sophomore Felipe Valencia who finished third (first among collegians) in the shot put at 58'-6.0" (17.83m). Freshman Colin George jumped 6'-6.75" (2.00m) in the high jump to place fourth.
Along with Burks and Axel in the long jump, Houston collected four other top-5 finishes in the field events. Diayja Sheppard finished third in the high jump with a mark of 5'-5.75" (1.67m), while Paige Lawrence (18'-6.0", 5.64m) and Haley Houston (11'-7.75", 3.55m) each took fourth place in the long jump and pole vault respectively. Freshman Mikaila Martin finished fifth in the shot put with a toss of 45'-1.75" (13.76m).
Kelsey Roy picked up a top-5 finish for the Cougar women as she crossed the line in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.35, while Jennifer Dunlap ran 2:17.49 in the 800-meters to earn the women's final top-5 finish of the day with a fourth place finish.
UP NEXT FOR HOUSTON
The Cougars return to the Houston area March 25-26, when they compete in the Rice Victor Lopez Classic. The meet will last three days from March 24-26, with day one consisting of high school competition, and days two and three combining both high school and collegiate action.
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
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