University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
NCAA West Preliminary Round
Cougars Qualify Three for NCAA Championship
5/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Lawrence, Kan. â€" A trio of Houston Cougar Track & Field student-athletes have punched their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships after the first day of the rain-shortened NCAA West Regional in Lawrence, Kan., on Friday.
Sophomore Cameron Burrell and freshmen Brian Bell and Amere Lattin all booked their tickets to Eugene, Ore., the site of the 2016 National Championships. All three athletes qualified within the top-12 of their respective events after the quarterfinal rounds on Thursday were cancelled due to rain.
Running in heat three of the 100-meter dash, Burrell crossed the line in 10.21 to earn the automatic qualifying position for winning the heat. The No. 2 overall qualifying time for Burrell sends him to his second NCAA Outdoor Championships (2014, 200m and 4x100m) and gives him trips in both the indoor and outdoor meets this season.
Competing in heat one, Bell narrowly missed out on an automatic qualifying spot in the 800-meters, when he finished second in the heat at 1:48.73, just six tenths of a second behind Shaquille Walker of BYU. The second place finish meant Bell would have to wait out the remainder of the heats, but when the final runner crossed the line, Bell had the 10th overall time to book his trip to nationals.
Lattin wrapped Friday's action by competing in the 400-meter hurdles. Running in heat four, Lattin clocked a 51.28 to finish second in the heat. After waiting out the final two heats, Lattin qualified on time with the ninth fastest mark. Lattin will be in action again on Saturday when he competes in the 110-meter hurdles.
Senior LeShon Collins and freshman Mario Burke were also in action in the 100 on Friday. Collins finished 14th in 10.39, while Burke took 17th at 10.44. Collins will be in action again Saturday in the 200-meter dash beginning at 12:55 p.m. On the women's side, Bria Carter finished 31st in 11.80.
Action on Friday kicked off with Brian Barraza running the meet's longest distance, the 10,000-meters. Barraza just missed qualifying for his first trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships when he finished 13th in 30:03.22.
Burrell was back in competition later in the morning, along with Antwan Dickerson and Trumaine Jefferson in the men's long jump. Burrell was Houston's top finisher in 14th with a best of 24-7.0 (7.49m), while Dickerson finished 29th at 23-8.0 (7.21m) and Jefferson placed 37th with a mark of 23-0.75 (7.03m).
Freshman Mikaila Martin wrapped up field events for the Cougars with a 31st place finish in her first regional hammer throw competition. Competing in flight one, Martin threw 185-11 (56.67m) on her final throw to finish fourth in the flight.
Senior Mayorca Young wrapped up the women's running on the first day of the regional with a 45th place finish in the 400-meter dash, with a time of 56.98.
With the threat of weather looming on Saturday as well, the decision was made to change the schedule for the final day. Running action will move to 10 a.m., beginning with the women's 4x100-meter relay and will consist of the remainder of the running events, concluding with the 4x400-meter relay at 2:50 p.m.
Houston will also compete in the women's triple jump at 12:30 p.m., on Saturday, while Felipe Valencia and Alex Garza will wrap field event competition at 2:30 p.m., in the shot put.
A fully revised schedule can be found by clicking HERE.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
Live video of the 2016 NCAA West Regional will be provided live courtesy of the host school Kansas, and can be found by visiting KUAthletics.com and following the appropriate links, or by clicking HERE. Revised live broadcast schedules are to be announced.
Live results will also be made available courtesy of the NCAA. Fans can find up-to-the-minute results for the regional by clicking HERE.
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
