May 14, 2005

Final Stats | Championship Central

With a rare Triple Crown and successful team championship defense, the University of Houston men's and women's track and field teams won both team championships at the 2005 Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at the Lewis/Tellez Complex on the UH campus.

By winning the C-USA Men's Outdoor Championship, the Cougars became the first C-USA men's team in the league's 10-year history to win the team championships at the Conference USA cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field championships.

"It has been a long year, but I never felt better than winning the men's cross country championship for the first time since 1960," Houston head coach Leroy Burrell said. "That's when I started thinking of the chance for winning the Triple Crown and the entire team bought into it.

"I told the team that it is a rare opportunity, and they relished the idea. At times I would talk to them and they would look like they were asleep, but when it came time to compete they were always ready."

The Cougars were certainly ready as they won their first C-USA Outdoor Championship by 96 points, outdistancing second-place TCU, 201-105.

Burrell was voted the Conference USA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of The Year for the third time in his career after leading the Cougars to their first C-USA Outdoor team title since 2000.

"We had surprises like Termaine Smith, a walk-on this year who has earned a scholarship, and a lot of clutch performances from Brandon Bray, Andrew Carruthers, Ronald Broadnax, Vincent Marshall and Carey LaCour."

Bray won the men's long jump on Friday with the best jump of his career, a wind-aided jump of 25' 6" (7.77 meters).

Carruthers came from behind in the last 10 meters to nip East Carolina's Hector Cotto with a lunge at the finish line as both runners finished with a time of 13.78 seconds.

"That was a career-best time for me," Carruthers said. "I felt him the whole way. I messed up in the middle of the race because I was too close to the hurdles. When I was able to gather myself and go over the last hurdle, I saw he had a slight lead. I practice leaning at the finish line all the time, but in a situation like that, I wasn't even sure who won."

He lunged on his final step of the race, and Cotto finished the race without leaning, allowing Carruthers to win.

A former state champion in the 110-meter hurdles, Broadnax earned All-Conference USA honors with a third place finish behind teammate Carruthers and Cotto.

Vincent Marshall had a third place finish in the men's triple jump when he leaped 49' 5¾" (15.08 meters) and qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships on his final jump of the day.

Jonathan Reeves also equaled his season-best mark in the shot put to finish as the runner-up with a throw of 56' 1¼" (17.10 meters) after winning the men's discus on Friday.

LaCour was named the C-USA Men's Athlete of the Year after winning both the men's 200 and 400 meter races with times of 20.60 seconds and 46.33 seconds, respectively. He also ran the anchor leg on Houston's winning 4x100-meter relay team and second-place 4x400-meter relay.

"I didn't think I could win both the 200 and 400 meter races because Preston Perry and Termaine Smith have been running strong all year," LaCour said. "But, they have been really pushing me and Stanford Routt (a 2004 Cougar All-American) also came out to practice after the NFL Draft and helped me in practice."

The Lady Cougars also successfully defended their Conference USA Outdoor championship by out-scoring runner-up Southern Miss, 137-116.5. Houston became first team since 1997 and just the second Conference USA team overall to win back-to-back outdoor championships. Marquette accomplished the feat in 1996 and 1997.

"We were nervous about our women's team two weeks ago," Burrell said. "LaDedra Guy wasn't running well, Jasmine Jackson wasn't jumping well and Alicia Cave was struggling in the hurdles. We had just come back from the LSU Alumni Gold Meet and Southern Miss really performed well there.

"We didn't go to the Penn Relays and worked on getting better. It paid off today when they rallied around themselves and did a great job."

Guy finished third in both the 100 and 200-meter races. Jackson had a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash and an eighth-place showing in the 200-meter race after winning the long jump on Friday.

Cave came back to win the 400-meter hurdles after finishing third in the 100-meter hurdles race Saturday.

"I led from the first curve to the finish line in the 400-meter race," Cave said. "I was disappointed after the 100-meter hurdles race, so I wanted to go out strong at the start. I also wanted to find out if I had it in me to win the race and felt confident that I did."

Cave's third-place finish came after she posted the fastest time in the preliminary heats.

Houston also received a strong performance from Keisha Howard, who won the 400-meter dash and broke the Conference USA record with a time of 52.11 seconds.

"I took control in the first part of the race like I wanted to do and was able to keep up with a strong pace," Howard said. "Coming off the last curve, I was able to stay strong down the straightaway."

Howard also had a seventh place finish in the 200 meters with a time of 23.94 seconds and ran on both of Houston's relay teams. The Lady Cougars finished as the runner-up team in the 4x100-meter race with a time of 44.66 points and was fourth in the 4x400-meter relay.

This marks the second straight year the Lady Cougars have won the team championships in close races. Last year, they edged TCU by one point. It also was the third time Houston has won both the Conference USA men's and women's outdoor track and field championships. The Cougars and Lady Cougars also won C-USA team titles in 1998 and 2000. The championships give each team five Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.