University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
The American Outdoor Championships
Houston Opens American Championships
5/11/2018 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
HOUSTON â€" The Houston Cougar Men's and Women's Track & Field teams opened the first day of competition at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships by qualifying nine individuals for Sunday's finals.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saturday's competition opens with the conclusion of the multi-events, beginning with the men's 110-meter hurdles at 9:30 a.m. CT, while the final three events of the heptathlon open at 11 a.m. CT with the long jump.
Five more field event champions will be crowned on Friday, beginning with the men's discus at 1:30 p.m. CT. The men's long jump, and the women's pole vault, long jump and discus champions will also be decided Saturday.
The remainder of the preliminary running events will be held Saturday evening, opening with the women's 100-meter hurdles at 4 p.m., CT. The men's 110-meter hurdles will follow, while qualifying rounds of the 1,500-meter run, 400- and 100-meter dash as well as the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase will also be contested.
Sunday will serve as the final day of competition, with running action kicking off at 3:30 p.m. CT, with the women's 4x100-meter relay and will conclude at 6:50 p.m. CT, with the men's 4x400-meter relay. The final nine field events will also conclude on Sunday, starting with the men's javelin at 9 a.m. CT.
A full schedule of events for The American Championships can be found by clicking HERE. Live results for each day will be provided courtesy of FinishTiming and can be found by clicking HERE.
All three days of The American Championships will be streamed live on the American Digital Network via Facebook Live. Access to each of the streams can be found by clicking HERE.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Action started in the throws ring, where junior Taylor Scaife scored Houston's first points of the meet with a fifth-place finish in the women's hammer throw. Scaife used her third attempt to mark 187-8 (57.22m) and score four points for the Cougars.
Jennifer Ramirez placed 20th with a mark of 140-10.0 (42.93m), while on the men's side, Felipe Valencia (176-8; 53.85m) placed ninth, and Jose Herrera (167-4; 51.00m) finished 15th.
Multi-events also kicked off on the first day of the meet with the first five events of the men's decathlon and the first four events of the women's heptathlon. On the men's side, Luke Barksdale wrapped up the first day in 10th place with 3,304 points.
Barksdale had big efforts in the jumps, where he scored 736 points in the long jump after leaping a personal-best 21-10.75 (6.67m), before going up-and-over the high jump bar at another personal-record of 6-2.25 (1.89m) to score 705 points. Barksdale set personal-bests in each of his five events on the first day.
Anna Larsson will enter the final three events of the heptathlon on Saturday in ninth place after picking up 2,787 points on Friday. Larsson's top marks of the day came with a time of 15.31 in the 100-meter hurdles to score 801 points, while her time of 26.61 scored 745 points in the 200-meter dash.
Cassie Leal sits right behind Larsson in 10th place with 2,754 points after the first day. Leal scored big points with personal-bests in each of the 100 hurdles (15.30; 802 points) and 200 dash (26.57; 748 points) and also scored 712 points after going over the high-jump bar at 5-2.25 (1.58m).
In the individual running events, Cameron Laverty became the first Cougar to book a berth in the finals, when he qualified with the fastest-overall time in the 800-meter run. Laverty finished the 2-lap race in 1:51.75 to earn the right to run in Sunday's final, while Aaron Hurd finished ninth in a personal-best 1:54.13 and Nicholas Hamilton placed 11th in 1:54.70.
In the women's 800-meter run, Brianna Nolen just missed a personal-best en route to running 2:15.79 to finish 16th.
Brianne Bethel was the next Cougar to book a berth in the finals after earning an automatic-qualifying bid in the 200-meter dash. Bethel raced half the track in a personal-best 23.36 to post the second-fastest time of the qualifying rounds. Freshman Ariele Adams placed ninth, when she tied her personal-best of 24.24, while Essance Sample (24.64) and Nikesha Keith (24.82) finished 17th and 22nd, respectively.
Houston punched four berths to the finals of the men's 200-meter dash, led by junior Kahmari Montgomery, who ran the fastest-overall time in the qualifiers and set a new personal record at 20.62. Cameron Burrell won his heat in 20.86 to post the third-fastest time, while Nicholas Alexander ran 20.92 and Mario Burke ran 20.93 to qualify fourth and fifth, respectively.
Trenton McDonald finished the 200-meter dash in a personal-best 21.35 to place 11th.
In the final preliminary race of the day, Birexus Hawkins picked up another qualifying bid for the Cougars after winning her heat of the 400-meter hurdles. Hawkins cleared the hurdles on the full-lap race in 59.98 to win Heat 4 and clock the third-fastest time of the prelims. Ebony White finished 12th overall in 1:01.89.
Houston's men booked two more spots in the finals in the men's version of the 400-meter hurdles, with the two fastest times in the preliminary round. Amere Lattin won the final heat with a time of 50.82, while Quivell Jordan's 51.28 qualified him second.
Normally a jumper by trade, Jared Kerr finished the hurdle race in ninth at 53.81, while Caleb Holl ran 54.67 to take 11th.
Senior Maddie Brown wrapped the evening for the Cougars with a 13th-place finish in the 10,000-meter run in 38:18.81.
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Players Mentioned
