University of Houston Athletics
Houston Ready for NACAC Championships
8/9/2018 2:13:00 PM | Track and Field
Four Cougars to represent three countries in Toronto
HOUSTON – Four members of the Houston Cougar Men's Track & Field team are set to represent their home countries at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Track & Field Championships, to be held across Aug. 10-12, in Toronto.
ABOUT THE NACAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
In all, 31 countries will be represented at the NACAC Championships, including the United States, Barbados and Canada, where Cougars will be featured.
HOW TO FOLLOW
CBC Sports will have exclusive coverage of the NACAC Championships and will feature coverage of each of the final two days. For fans with access, live TV coverage on CBC begins Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3 p.m. CT, and at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday, Aug. 11. Fans can also see coverage on the internet at CBCSports.ca and on the CBCSports app for iOS and Android devices.
Live results will be made available prior to the start of the NACAC Championships and can be found by visiting the Athletics Canada website or by clicking HERE.
WHAT TO WATCH
Recent alum Cameron Burrell and rising senior Kahmari Montgomery will represent the United States at the NACAC Championships, while Jared Kerr will compete for the host-country Canada and Mario Burke will wear Barbados' colors.
Action for Houston's competitors inside Varsity Stadium will kick off at 9:15 a.m. CT, Friday with Jared Kerr in the long jump. Running events are slated to begin at 9:25 a.m. CT, Friday, when Burrell and Burke compete in the qualifiers of the 100-meter dash, while Montgomery will hit the track just under an hour later for the semifinals of the 400-meter dash at 10:10 a.m. CT.
Saturday's action will see the semifinals of the 100 at 3:05 p.m. CT, with the final to follow at 4:50 p.m. CT, while the final of the 400 will be contested at 4:30 p.m. CT.
The finals of the men's long jump will open the last day of competition, beginning at 12:20 p.m. CT, Sunday. On the track, both Burrell and Burke will represent their respective countries in the finals of the 4x100-meter relay at 2:40 p.m. CT, while Burke and Montgomery will run in the 4x400-meter relay at 3:20 p.m. CT.
A full schedule of the NACAC Championships can be found by clicking HERE.
HOW THEY GOT THERE
Burrell won NCAA gold at the 2018 Outdoor Track & Field Championships, claiming the title in the 100-meter dash in 10.13. The then-senior also anchored the 4x100-meter relay squad to its second-consecutive NCAA title and an NCAA record in 38.17.
Following the NCAA season, Burrell began his professional career with a bang, leading Team USA to a victory in the 4x100-meter relay at the first Athletics World Cup, before making his Diamond League debut with a ninth-place finish in the 100 after running 10.07 in London.
Burke, who ran the third leg of Houston's championship 4x100-meter relay, claimed Barbados' national championship in the 100-meter dash for the second-consecutive year, when he ran 10.27 at the ICBL National Athletics Championships in June.
Later in the summer, Burke set a huge lifetime best in the 100-meter dash, running 10.03 in the preliminary rounds of the Central American and Caribbean Games, where he finished fourth in the finals.
After a banner year, in which he earned NCAA All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor circuits, senior Kahmari Montgomery added to his repertoire with a national championship at the USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in June. Montgomery raced to the United States championship in the 400-meter dash in 44.58 and enters Friday's competition as the top overall seed.
Like Burrell, Montgomery competed in the inaugural Athletics World Cup, running the anchor leg of the 4x400-meter relay, which claimed gold to cap the event and secure the overall championship for Team USA.
Kerr became Houston's third national champion of the summer, when he won the Canadian title in the men's long jump in July. Locked in a back-and-forth affair with Damian Warner, Kerr used his fifth attempt to jump 25-7.25 (7.80m) and claim the gold.
Kerr's second Canadian championships continued an impressive junior campaign, which saw him win gold at The American Outdoor Championships, en route to becoming the first Cougar to clear the eight-meter mark in the event since 1996, when he jumped 26-8.5 (8.14m).
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 & Field team has established its own official Facebook (facebook.com/UHCougarTF) and Twitter pages (@UHCougarTF).
