University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
Penn Relays
Cougars Win Hurdle Relay at Penn
4/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
PHILADELPHIA -- The Houston Cougar men's hurdlers turned in a banner day at the Penn Relays on Friday, where they won the College Men's Shuttle Hurdles Championship of America, and then qualified three for the finals of the 110-meter hurdles, on Friday, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Houston's men's hurdle crew of senior Issac Williams, and freshmen Marcus McWilliams, Amere Lattin and Raymund Clarke, added another accolade to their stellar outdoor season, when they took home the hurdle relay championship in 56.78. The win for the Cougars is their first relay win at the Penn Relays since the 1989 4x100-meter relay team took the gold in 40.00.
Less than an hour later, the hurdlers were back on the track for the preliminary round of the 110m hurdles. All three of the Cougars in the event qualified for Saturday's finals, with Williams qualifying second overall in 13.86, McWilliams finishing in the fourth spot at 13.93, and Lattin claiming the final spot at 14.10. The crew makes up one-third of the finals race which will take place at 2:20 p.m., CT on Saturday.
Running at the same time as the hurdles, the men's 100-meter dash squad saw two sprinters qualify for Saturday's finals as well. Senior LeShon Collins had the day's top time qualifying first overall in 10.50, while Mario Burke ran 10.59 to qualify fourth. Freshman John Lewis III finished 18th in 11.37. The qualifying duo will be back in action at 2:50 p.m., Saturday.
Houston also qualified a pair of relay crews for Saturday's finals with the men's 4x100-meter relay and the women's 4x200-meter relay each earning a shot to compete on the final day of the Penn Relays. The Cougar men qualified first overall in 40.13 in the 4x1, while the women's 4x2 squad qualified seventh overall in 1:37.74.
The women's 4x100-meter relay team competed in the finals on Friday, where they finished fifth. The team of Bria Carter, Kelli Hardnett, Tonyecia Burks and Tori Williams ran 45.64 after qualifying ninth on Thursday. In the men's relays, the 4x400-meter relay squad finished 20th in 3:14.87, while the Distance Medley Relay team took 26th in 10:20.36.
Carter would be action again later in the afternoon when she finished 14th in the women's 100m dash at 12.14.
In the field events, Burks took a top-5 finish in the triple jump when she jumped 39-10 (12.14m). Freshman Felicienne Axel took eighth in the event with a best leap of 39-0.5 (11.90m).
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.
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Players Mentioned
