April 29, 2006

Des Moines, Iowa- - The University of Houston men's and women's track and field teams won a pair of relay races and were the runner-up in another relay at the 2006 Drake Relays on Saturday. In addition, the Cougars registered a third-place finish and a fourth-place showing in two different field events.

In a match-up of Conference USA's top two men's 4x100-meter relay teams, Houston's Vincent Marshall, Preston Perry, Tremaine Smith and Carey LaCour combined for a season-best time of 39.49 seconds to edge C-USA rival UTEP, which had a second-place time of 39.76 seconds.

Houston also won one women's relay events, and was the runner-up team in another. Octavia Garrett, LaDedra Guy, Keisha Howard and Ebonie Floyd combined to win the 4x400-meter relay race for a season-best time of 3:32.37.

Floyd, Howard, Garrett and Guy also had a time of 1:34.75 in the 4x200-meter relay race to finish in second place behind Louisiana Tech, who had a winning time of 1:34.29.

Caresir Hamilton had a fourth-place finish in the women's triple jump with a leap of 12.42 meters (40-9).

Jonathan Reeves registered a third-place finish in the men's shot put with a mark of 17.95 meters (58-10.75). Reeves also had a throw of 51.84 meters (170-1) to finish seventh in the discus.

Sesar Figueroa had the top collegiate and sixth-fastest time overall of 4:11.12 in the special one mile run.

Sam Fobbs had a time of 54.04 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to finish in 18th place.

Calum Neff had a time of 9:59.60 for a 16th-place finish in the men's steeplechase, while freshman Kelcee Keenan had a time of 11:47.85 in her first collegiate steeplechase race.