University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Split For Texas Relays, Bobcat Invitational
3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON â€" Following a successful week at the Victor Lopez Classic at Rice University, the Houston Cougar men's and women's track and field teams are back on the road, where the squad will split with some athletes heading to the Texas Relays in Austin, while the remainder will compete at the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos.
ABOUT THE TEXAS RELAYS
Action in the Texas Relays will begin on Wednesday, March 30, with the multi events and the first four events of the women's heptathlon at 10:30 a.m., followed by the initial five events of the men's decathlon scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
The second day begins on Thursday, March 31 with the conclusion of the men's decathlon and women's heptathlon at 10 a.m., and 11 a.m., respectively, as well as the first individual running events, the preliminary rounds of the women's and men's 400-meter hurdles at 4:30 p.m. After a short break, running events will resume at 7 p.m. with the 800-meters. Field events on Thursday will kick off with the women's hammer throw at 11 a.m., followed by the men at 2 p.m., and will consist of the pole vault and javelin for each gender throughout the day.
Friday's portion of the Texas Relays starts at 9:35 a.m., with the prelims of the 4x100-meter relay followed by the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles, the 100-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay. The finals of the 400-meter hurdles will be held at 6:55 p.m. Field events being with the men's discus at 9 a.m., and continue throughout the day with the men's javelin concluding day two at 6 p.m.
Saturday will see an action packed slate of running as the finals of the remaining events will be held throughout the day beginning at noon running through the 4x400-meter relay finals beginning at 4:05 p.m. The finals of the field events are scheduled to begin at noon with the pole vault.
ABOUT THE BOBCAT INVITATIONAL
The Bobcat Invitational will consist of three days of track and field action, with the first five events of the decathlon, the first four events of the heptathlon and the women's and men's discus all being held on Thursday, March 31 beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Friday will see the conclusion of the multi events as well as the high jump, hammer throw, long jump and men's pole vault beginning at 1 p.m. Running events kick off at 5 p.m., with the women's 1,500-meters and continue through 8:25 p.m., with the men's 5,000-meters.
The javelin begins Saturday's competition at 9 a.m., followed by the pole vault, triple jump and shot put. The 4x100-meter relay kicks off the final day of running events at 2 p.m., and runs through the 4x400-meter relay at 4:45 p.m.
WHO TO WATCH FOR
A trio of the nation's top 100-meter dashers in the nation will be in action at the Texas Relays. On the men's side No. 10 LeShon Collins (10.36) and No. 84 John Lewis (10.61) will each be in action, while No. 81 Bria Carter (11.82) with compete for the women.
Three more ranked Cougars are scheduled to run the 110-meter hurdles for Houston as No. 4 Issac Williams (13.70), No. 30 Amere Lattin (14.12) and No. 33 Marcus McWilliams (14.14) will run the event in Austin. Lattin is also scheduled to make an appearance in the 400-meter hurdles.
The field events will feature a bevy of ranked talent for Houston, led by No. 10 Cameron Burrell in the long jump who leaped 7.58m at the Victor Lopez last week. Burrell will be joined in the jumps by that nation's No. 30 triple jumper on the men's side John Horton (15.15m), as well as No. 33 Tonyecia Burks in the women's triple (12.32m) and No. 87 high jumper Diayja Sheppard (1.67m).
Houston will also field two student-athletes in the shot put at the Texas Relays who are ranked in the top-45 in the nation. Sophomore Felipe Valencia enters the competitions with the 35th best throw in the nation at 17.83m, while Alex Garza holds the 44th best throw at 17.51m.
The men's and women's nationally ranked 4x100-meter relay teams will also be in action on the weekend. The men enter competition ranked fifth in the nation with a best of 39.66, while the women will compete with the 25th best mark at 45.13.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
Live results will be made available for each meet as well as a live video feed for the Texas Relays, with times still to be determined.
Live results for the Texas Relays can be found by clicking HERE, while the live video will be streamed courtesy of ESPN3 and can be found HERE. Action will also be carried live on The Longhorn Network with times to be determined at a later date.
Live results for the Bobcat Invitational can be found at the Texas State Track and Field website or by clicking HERE.
UP NEXT FOR HOUSTON
Houston heads to the Baylor Invitational on Saturday, April 9 in Waco, Texas. The 1-day event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
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
