University of Houston Athletics
Bell Caps Successful U20 Worlds for Cougars
7/24/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
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Bydgoszcz, Poland -- After a week in Europe, freshman Brian Bell brought the IAAF World U20 Championships to a close for the Cougars with a seventh place finish in the 800-meters, while competing for Team USA on Sunday.
In his third day of competition, Bell was on the track for the final of the 800-meters, where he crossed the line in 1:47.68. Bell posted the 23rd fastest time in the preliminary rounds on Friday at 1:50.97, before shaving over three seconds off his time on Saturday, when he ran 1:47.49 in the semifinals to qualify for the finals in sixth. Bell's run at worlds capped a freshman campaign that saw the Dayton, Ohio native set each of the indoor and outdoor 800-meter records at Houston, while also claiming the 2016 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championship in the event.
Hurdler Amere Lattin took silver for Team USA in the 110-meter hurdles on Thursday, before helping the 4x100-meter relay team qualify for the finals on Friday. Lattin was part of the first 1-2 finish in United States history in the 110 hurdles when he ran 13.30 to finish second behind American teammate Marcus Krah. In the relay, Lattin took the first leg of a group that ran 39.70, before the second squad won the event the next day.
On Wednesday, freshman sprinter Mario Burke claimed Barbados' first-ever medal in the U20 Championships with his bronze in the 100-meter dash, where he clocked 10.26. Burke concluded a successful freshman campaign that also included a silver medal at the CARIFTA games earlier this year in the same event, and a third place finish at the Barbados National Championships.
The week began when incoming freshman Klara Mattson reached the finals of the women's pole vault while competing for Team Sweden, when she jumped a new personal best 13-7.25 (4.15m). In the horizontal jumps, another Cougar signee would reach the finals after Samiyah Samuels jumped 19-11.5 (6.08m). Samuels would match that mark two days later to finish eighth.
In total, 1,512 athletes represented 157 different countries at the IAAF World U20 Championships with each athlete qualifying by meeting a minimum mark in their respective events and being one of the top-2 under-20 athletes in their country.
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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