University of Houston Athletics
Cougar Freshmen Ready for USATF Juniors
6/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Clovis, Calif. -- The Houston Cougar Track & Field team will send five of its freshmen student-athletes to compete at the 2016 USATF Junior Outdoor Championships beginning Friday, in Clovis, Calif.
Brian Bell, Cameron Laverty and Amere Lattin each qualified from the men's squad, while throwers Mikaila Martin and Nora Monie met their marks on the women's side. The USATF Juniors feature athletes ages 16-19 who have met a minimum qualifying standard in their respective events. Athletes finishing in the top-2 of each event will qualify for the 2016 IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on July 19-24, provided they meet the world standard as well.
Lattin will open the event at 5:40 p.m., on Friday when he competes in the 110-meter hurdles. Lattin will be the only Cougar to compete in multiple events, running in the 400-meter hurdles at 7:10 p.m., Saturday as well. Lattin met the qualifying standards for each of the 110 (14.20) and 400 (53.94) hurdles when he won American Conference championships in each event with times of 13.59 and 50.71 respectively. Both of Lattin's times also met the world qualifying standard.
A pair of Cougars will be on the track together when Bell and Laverty compete in the 800-meters at 7:20 p.m., Friday. Bell met the qualifying mark of 1:51.14 and set the school record in the event in 1:47.58 at the Mt. SAC Relays, while Laverty ran 1:50.38 at The American Championships to set his mark. Bell's time met the world standard meaning he will need just a top-2 finish to qualify, while Laverty will need to finish below 1:49.50 to meet the mark.
Monie will be the first women's competitor for Houston when she throws the discus at 8:15 p.m., Friday. The Sharyland, Texas native met the qualifying mark of 157-5 (48.00m) at The American Championships when she threw 162-11 (49.66m) to finish fourth. The mark for Monie also met the world qualifying standard, which is the same distance.
Martin will be the final Cougar in action when she throws the hammer at 7:30 p.m., Saturday. Martin's school record of 188-8 (57.50m) at the Tom Tellez Invitational beat the standard by over 11 feet and is right on the nose for the world qualifying mark of 188-8.
CATCH IT LIVE
Live video coverage of the USATF Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be provided courtesy of USATF.TV. To access the video feed, fans can visit USATF.tv and follow the appropriate links, or they can reach the direct link by clicking HERE. A paid subscription is required to view the content.
Live stats will also be available courtesy of RecordTiming.com. Up to the minute results can be found 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
