May 11, 2006

El Paso, Texas- - The University of Houston men's track and field team stands in fourth place in the team standings after the first day of the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Kidd Field.

The Cougars scored 11 points in the first two events of the meet as Jonathan Reeves, Lucas Mireles and Andy Tackett combined for seven points in the hammer throw and Cole Dailey scored four points in the 10,000-meter run.

East Carolina leads in the men's team standings with 18 points, while Rice and Tulsa are tied for second with 14 points each. Behind Houston are UTEP, which stands in fifth place with 10 points, while Southern Miss scored six points and Memphis had five points.

Reeves registered the third-best hammer throw in school history with a mark of 43.54 meters (142-10) to score four points. Lucas Mireles finished in seventh place with a throw of 38.01 meters (124-8) for two more points, and Andy Tackett added another point with an eighth place throw of 34.84 meters (114-4).

Dailey also registered a fifth-place finish with a time of 32:09.33 in the men's 10,000-meter run.

Houston is primed to scored additional points in the men's decathlon as the Cougars have four of the top six competitors heading into the final five events on Friday. Jarrett Flax scored 3,746 points to take the lead through the first five events. Morgan Floyd is in third place with 3,675 points, Nicholas Garza is in fourth place with 3,639 points and Eric Matcek is in sixth place with 2,736 points.

In the women's division, Rachel Easley ended the first day leading the heptathlon through the first four events with 3,392 points. Kerri LaCour is in eighth place with 2,413 points heading into Friday's final three events.

In the first five events of the men's decathlon on Thursday, Flax took his first lead of the day in the fourth of five events after clearing two meters (6-6.75) in the high jump to score 803 points and take his first lead.

Floyd opened the competition winning the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.91 seconds for 881 points. Flax opened the day with the second-fastest time with a wind-aided 11.04 seconds to score 852 points. Nicholas Garza had a the fourth-fastest wind-aided time of 11.11 seconds and scored 836 points, while Eric Matcek had a wind-aided time of 11.57 seconds to score 738 points.

Floyd also won the long jump with a wind-aided leap of 6.82 meters (22-4.50) and scored 771 points. Ryan Walsh of Rice tied Floyd for the longest jump, while Garza was third with a legal jump of 6.78 meters (22-3.00) to score 762 points, while Flax had a wind-aided leap of 6.33 meters (20-9.25) to score 659 points. Matcek also had a wind-aided jump of 5.41 meters (17-9) to score 463 points.

Flax scored 651 points in the shot put with a mark of 12.74 meters (41-9.75), while Floyd had a mark of 12.19 meters (40-0) to net 618 points. Matcek had a throw of 11.16 meters (36-7.50) to score 556 points, while Garza had a mark of 10.61 meters (34-9.75) and scored 522 points.

In addition to Flax clearing two meters in the high jump, Garza cleared 1.91 meters (6-3.25) to score 723 points, while Floyd had a leap of 1.82 meters (5-11.50) to net 644 points. Matcek cleared 1.67 meters (5-5.75) to score 520 points.

The first day ended with the 400 meters that Garza won with a time of 50.41 seconds. Flax had the third-fastest time of 50.73 seconds to net 781 points. Floyd scored 761 points with a time of 761 points and Matcek netted 459 points with a time of 58.68 seconds.

Easley never trailed in the first four events of the heptathlon as she jumped out to an early lead with the fastest time in the 100-meter hurdles in a wind-aided time of 14.15 seconds to score 957 points. LaCour had the sixth fastest time with a wind-aided 15.50 seconds to score 777 points.

Easley also scored the most points in the high jump after clearing 1.76 meters (5-9.25) to score 928 points. LaCour scored 481 points after clearing 1.37 meters (4-6).

In the final two first-day events of the heptathlon, Easley scored 678 points in the shot put and 829 points in the 200-meter dash. She had a shot put mark of 12.25 meters (40-2.25) in the shot put and a legal time of 25.64 seconds in the 200 meters.

LaCour scored 491 points in the shot put with a mark of 9.41 meters (30-10.50) and 664 points with a wind-aided time of 27.59 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

The decathlon and heptathlon will conclude Friday morning.