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Cougars Travel To Tampa To Compete In C-USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
May 9, 2001 Houston, Texas - The University of Houston men's and women's track and field teams will travel to Tampa, Fla. on May 10-12 the compete in the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Houston enters the meet as the defending men's and women's C-USA champions after winning both titles last year in New Orleans. Houston Among C-USA Women's Leaders The Lady Cougars have two defending individual champions competing at the 2001 C-USA Championships. All-American Rhian Clarke enters the meet with the best height in the pole vault with 13 feet, 5 1/2 inches (4.15 meters). Her vault ranks fourth nationally. (13-5.50) Senior Theodoesha Boxill returns in the 400 meters after being hampered by a hamstring injury throughout most of the 2001 indoor season. Boxill has the fifth-best time among C-USA quarter milers with 54.73 seconds. Nadja Peterson of Tulane is the C-USA leader with 53.56 seconds. Houston has the top two 100-meter hurdlers in Lauren Smith and Magenta Taylor after they finished first and second at the Texas Southern Relays. Smith, who leads C-USA hurdlers, won the event in 13.56 seconds, while Taylor, who has missed the last three weeks with a hamstring injury, finished second in 13.64 seconds. Smith also ranks third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.89 at the Tom Tellez Invitational on March 31. LaToya Reed is fifth with a time of 1:02.03. Peterson, who ranks eighth nationally, has the best time with 57.37 seconds. Senior Jackie Rzepecki has proven to be one of the top distance runners in Conference USA this season. Rzepecki ranks second in the 1500 meters with 4:28.75 and is fourth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 10:46.16 at the Penn Relays. South Florida's Rita Arndt lead C-USA 1500 meter runners with a time of 4:26.04 and Briana Dahm of Marquette, who ranks 29th nationally, leads the steeplechase with a time of 10:36.77. Arndt is second (35th nationally) in 10:8.41 and Bethany Harry of Marquette is third (44th nationally) with a time of 10:46.15. Freshman Jasmin Jackson has the second-best long jump mark this year with a wind-aided leap of 20 feet, 3 1/2 inches (6.18 meters) at the LSU Alumni Gold Meet on April 14. Jackson trails South Florida's Kerine Black, who enters the meet with a mark of 21 feet, 4 1/2 inches (6.50 meters) on March 17. Houston also enters the meet with the fastest time in the 4x100-meter relays with a 45.58 seconds at the Michael Johnson Classic on April 21st. Houston Among C-USA Men's Leaders Houston has three defending C-USA men's individual champions on its roster in 2001, but only two will be competing in Tampa. Robert Foster was named the C-USA Freshman-of-the-Year after winning the 200 meters last year in New Orleans, and enters this year's meet as the top sprinter in Conference USA. Foster enters the meet with the fastest times in the 100 and 200 meters with a non-legal wind-aided mark of 10.21 seconds in the 100 meters and 20.76 in the 200 meters. Freshman walk-on Fred Day ranks third in the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.50 seconds and is fourth in the 200 meters with another wind-aided 21.40 seconds. Houston's other two defending champions are Jeff Mueller in the high jump and Greg Christie in the 400-meter hurdles. Mueller is a two-time C-USA outdoor high jump champion, but enters the meet in a three-way tie with South Florida's Jimmy Baxter and Stephen Ketterl for second among this year's leaders at 7 feet, 1/2 inch (2.14 meters). Cincinnati's Jared Burkholder has a leap of 1/4 inch higher to lead the league. Houston's Adam Callahan could also challenge as he has the fifth-best leap at 6-10.25 (2.09 meters) after transferring from BYU. Christie is sitting out the 2001 outdoor season with tendonitis in his knee. He won the 60-meter hurdles a this year's C-USA indoor championships and won both hurdle races at the 1998 C-USA Outdoor meet in Tampa. In addition to Foster holding the best times in both sprints, Houston also has the top C-USA performers in the decathlon and pole vault. Alex Herrmann scored 6,844 points at the Texas Relays to finish eighth at the Texas Relays in his only decathlon competition this season. Herrmann sat out last season with a heel injury after finishing second at the 1999 C-USA Championships and third in 1998. Herrmann also enters the meet ranked fifth in the javelin throw with 176 feet, 8 inches (53.86 meters) at the Michael Johnson Classic. Freshman Andrew Martin had a vault of 16 feet, 3/4 (4.90 meters) of an inch to win the C-USA Indoor Championships. Martin, who will also compete in the decathlon for the first time this season, has an outdoor season best of 15 feet, 5 inches (4.65 meters). Bill Collins, who also vaulted 15-11 during the indoor season and finished second at the C-USA Indoor meet, has an outdoor sesaon best of 15 feet, 5 inches (4.70 meters) at the Michael Johnson Classic. Senior Billy Leavings is tied with Collins for fifth among C-USA leaders with a mark of 15 feet, 11 inches (4.85 meters) this season. Houston also has the second-fastest time in the 4x100-meter relay this season with a time of 40.45 seconds at the Michael Johnson Classic. Memphis leads C-USA with 40.17 seconds. Senior Adonis Coles ranks fourth in the 110-hurdles with a time of 14.46 seconds at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. Coles won the C-USA 60-meter hurdles title in 1999 and 2000. Freshman Jason Edwards had the fifth-best mark in the long jump with 24 feet, 5 inches (7.44 meters) at the Michael Johnson Classic. Last Week's Top Women's Perfomances Rhian Clarke won the women's pole vault and Jasmin Jackson continued her improvement in the women's long jump with a fourth-place finish at the weather shortened Texas Invitational in Austin on Saturday. Clarke cleared 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches to win the women's pole vault, while Jackson jumped over 19 feet for the second consecutive week with a wind-aided 19 feet, 1 1/4 inches to finish fourth. Freshman Jessica Edwards also vaulted 11 feet, 1 3/4 inches to finish eighth, while Kim Stallman was 10th in the women's pole vault as she also cleared 11 feet, 1 3/4 inches. Briana Bassler cleared 5 feet, 5 3/4 inches in the high jump to finish eighth and had a legal time of 15.93 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. Senior Vanessa Zavaletta finished fourth in the women's hammer throw with a mark of 134 feet, 1 inch. Serina McFarland finished ninth in the women's javelin throw with a mark of 93 feet, 2 inches. She also was 10th in the women's discus throw with a toss of 135 feet. Last Week's Top Men's Perfomances In the men's division, senior Jeff Mueller had a third place finish in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 10 3/4 inches, while Robert Foster had the second fastest time among collegians in the 200 meters. Foster finished eighth overall with a legal time of 21.18 seconds. He also ran on Houston's 4x100-meter relay team that finished third in 40.61 seconds. Tim Whitaker finished 10th in the men's 400-meter dash with a time of 49.60 seconds. In the men's field events, Adam Callahan finished sixth in the long jump with a wind-aided leap of 22 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Ryan Alvey was 13th overall in the shot put with a throw of 46 feet, 11 inches. C-USA Outdoor Championships in Tampa This marks the second time in the last four years that South Florida will host the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Houston won the men's and women's team titles that year as head coach Tom Tellez was named the 1998 C-USA men's and women's outdoor track and field Coach-of-the-Year. South Florida's Llewellyn Bredwood was named the men's outdoor Athlete-of-the-Year after winning the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Greg Christie was named the C-USA Freshman-of-the-Year after winning 110 and 400-meter hurdle championships. Hanne Lyngstad of Tulane was named the women's outdoor Athlete-of-the-Year after she won the 1500, 5000 and 10,000-meter runs. Nakeshia Jackson of UAB was named the women's Freshman-of-the-Year. Current UH head coach, Leroy Burrell witnessed Houton's men's and women's championships as a volunteer coach before he was named Houston head coach later that year. |
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