University of Houston Athletics
Houston Enters Outdoor Ranked No. 3 in USTFCCCA
3/21/2018 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
NEW ORLEANS â€" The Houston Cougar Men's Track & Field Team opens the 2018 Outdoor season ranked as the No. 3 team in the initial USTFCCCA poll released this week.
Houston has 23 members currently ranked among the top-50, all of which are contributing points to the computer generated poll. With its returning athletes, Houston tallied 196.54 points and trails just Oregon (197.96) and Texas A&M (197.75).
Houston picked up a big number of points from its sprint groups, including the 100- and 200-meter dashes, where they Cougars have four sprinters among the top-50 in each category. Cameron Burrell returns as the top-rated 100-meter, student-athlete after posting a school-record 9.93 at the NCAA Championships a year ago. The Indoor Champion in the 60- and 200-meter dashes, Elijah Hall returns as the seventh fastest in the 100 from a year ago, while Mario Burke (17th) and John Lewis III (40th) also contributed points.
Hall also returns as the favorite in the 200, where he ran the fastest returning time at 19.96w a season ago. All-American Jacarias Martin returns with the 17th fastest time, while Burke ranks 21st and Burrell holds down the 47th spot.
Fresh off an All-American performance in the 400-meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Kahamar Montgomery holds the seventh-fastest time in the outdoor event at 45.13, while Trumaine Jefferson makes his return to the track in the 45th position.
Jefferson also highlights a trio of long jumpers with the 17th-best returning mark from a year ago, while Antwan Dickerson enters the season in 19th, and Burrell holds the 25th spot.
Like Burrell, distance runner Brian Barraza finds his name on the rankings list three times, including the 3,000-meter steeplechase, in which he holds the fastest returning time in the nation at 8:32.48 after marking the time while running unattached a season ago. Barraza also ranked 29th in the 5,000-meter run and 17th in the 10,000-meter run entering 2018.
Junior Amere Lattin finds himself on the rankings list in each of the hurdle events entering the new year. Lattin holds the ninth-fastest returning time in the 110-meter hurdles at 13.59, while his 50.71 in the 400-meter hurdles ranks him 12th.
In the throws, a trio of Cougars have some of the top marks in the nation, including two in the men's shot put. Cameron Cornelius returns with the 26th-best distance in the shot, while Felipe Valencia holds down the 40th position. Senior Jack Thomas returned from a shoulder injury in 2018 and has already tallied the third-best throw of the season in the javelin at 234-10 (71.58m).
After an inspiring performance at the 2017 American Outdoor Championships, in which he won the triple jump in his first competition, Jared Kerr makes his return in 2018 with the 29th-best mark, while Nathaniel Mechler rounds out the scoring with the 22nd-best decathlon score from a season ago.
UP NEXT FOR HOUSTON
Houston returns to action for its first two-day meet of the outdoor season, when they head to the Rice Victor Lopez Classic. The meet at Houston's crosstown rival will be held across March 23-24 at Wendel D. Ley Track.
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Players Mentioned
