Quintet, Team Earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors

STOCK woman track and field athlete in starting blocks

7/14/2023 9:41:00 AM | Track and Field

Five Cougars earn academic awards, Women’s team earns Team Academic honors

HOUSTON – The University of Houston track and field women's team earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors on Thursday along with five individuals being named All-Academic.

The five women, Iman Babineaux, Kelly-Ann Beckford, Hailey Pollard, Cecilia Tamayo-Garza and Alexis Tilford-Rutherford, all posted cumulative GPAs of 3.25 or better and have finished in the top 96 in any indoor individual events descending order list or participated in the NCAA Preliminary Rounds.

The team posted a 3.09 team GPA in 2023 to earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors.

Babineaux, who competed on the women's 1,600-meter relay at the NCAA West Preliminary Round, helped the Cougars win the relay at the American Indoor Championships in February and aided the relay to a second-place finish at the American Championships in May. The junior, along with the relay quartet of Linesha Thompson, Tamayo-Garza and Sydni Townsend, finished 16th overall at the NCAA West Preliminary Round.

Beckford joined Houston in the fall and made her impact felt immediately in cross country and then on the indoor track where she earned All-America honors in the 800-meter run. The senior won the 800 at the American Indoor Championships in a meet record time of 2:05.44. The Trelawny, Jamaica native broke the school record three-straight meets leading up to the conference championships in February, running 2:02.59 which ranked 10th nationally in 2023.

Pollard had a remarkable final two meets of her career by posting back-to-back personal records in the discus throw to make the NCAA West Preliminary Round where she flew up the leaderboard 30 spots to finish 17th overall with a 52.91-meter throw.

Tamayo-Garza broke Mexican national records in 2023 and finished top 10 in the West in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. The senior also ran the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay at the NCAA West Preliminary Round. Tamayo-Garza's 22.45 in the 200 is the fastest 200 in Mexican track history, breaking her previous record of 22.89 run at the Mt. SAC Relays.

Tilford-Rutherford's long jump of 6.08-meter ranked 60th nationally in 2023. The junior finished fourth overall at the American Indoor Championships with the personal record 6.08-meter jump and then finished seventh overall at the outdoor conference championships.

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