Houston, Texas- All-Americans Jenny Adams, Rhian Clarke, Theodoesha Boxill and Robert Foster opened the University of Houston's 2001 indoor track and field season in impressive fashion at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Track and Field Meet on Friday night.

Adams broke her own meet record when she won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.45 seconds, while Clarke also set a meet record and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the pole vault with a mark of 12-11.50.

In addition, defending Conference USA 400-meter champion Theodoesha Boxill won the 200 meters with a time of 25.26 seconds, and Julie Perez finished second in the 3,000 meters with a time of 10:47.20.

Other Lady Cougars who scored included Aisha Morgan and Brandy Stewart in the 60 meters, Heather Howse in the 3,000 meters, Kim Stallman and Jessica Edwards in the pole vault and Jasmin Jackson in the long jump.

Morgan finished fifth in 60 meters with 7.70 to edge Stewart, who finished sixth in 7.71 seconds. Howse was fourth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 10:50.40. Stallman tied for third in the pole vault a vault of 10-11.75 and Jessica Edwards was fifth with 10-06. Jackson finished sixth in the long jump with a leap of 18-4.25.

As a team, the Lady Cougars finished third in the meet with 67 points. Southwest Texas State won the team title with 75.75 points to edge Texas-Arlington, who finished second with 74 points. Sam Houston State was fourth with 61.75 points and UTSA ended the meet in fifth place with 44 points.

Foster led Houston's men's team to a fifth place finish as he won the 60 meters with a personal best time of 6.78 seconds. Mike Olague finished second in the 3,000 meters with time of 8:43.30.

In the men's pole vault, Andrew Martin opened his UH career with a second place finish when he vaulted 15-11. Bill Collins finished fourth with an identical 15-11 mark, and Brandon Bray opened his UH career with a fourth-place finish in he long jump with a leap of 23-1.75.

Louisiana Tech won the men's title with 92 points as they edged Texas-Arlington, who was second with 76 points. Southwest Texas State was third with 52.50 points, Prairie View A&M finished fourth with 39 points and Houston was fifth with 38 points.

The meet was named in honor of former UH All-American distance runner Leonard Hilton, who passed away on July 4, 2000 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Hilton earned All-American honors in the three-mile run in 1971 with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships with a time of 13:31.6 and ran the anchor leg on Houston's distance medley relay team that set a world record in 1970. During his UH career, Hilton set school records in five different events.

"This meet is special to all Cougars," said UH head coach Leroy Burrell. "It helps bring bond three highly successful eras of at the University of Houston." Burrell was referring to the fact that Hilton ran for Johnny Morris, while he and Carl Lewis competed under Tom Tellez. Burrell has led the Cougars to five Conference USA men's and women's track and field championships since he took over the program in 1998.

Following Hilton's death, his wife, Christie, and their foster children Elsa and Gabriella Castellon Quisbert, established the Leonard Hilton Scholarship Endowment for Houston's track and field teams and this year's recipient is Mike Olague, who finished second at the 2000 Conference USA Cross Country Championships and qualified for the NCAA meet last fall.