Six Lady Cougars Qualify For NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

This marks the first time Houston has had six student-athletes qualify to compete in the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 1993.





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May 23, 2002

Houston, Texas -

Six members of the University of Houston women's track and field team have qualified to compete in the 2002 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 29-June 1 in Baton Rouge, La.

All-American Rhian Clarke will lead the Lady Cougars as she automatically qualified to compete in the NCAA Outdoor meet with the nation's sixth-best height in the pole vault. Clarke, who won her third straight Conference USA Outdoor pole vault championship May 11, recorded her season-best mark of 13 feet, 7 ¼ inches at the LSU Team Championships on April 20.

Joining Clarke will be Krystal Ward, juniors Aisha Morgan, Courtnie Ratliff and Lauren Smith, along with sophomore Jasmin Jackson.

Ward, a freshman from Rusk, Texas, qualified to compete in the women's heptathlon after she scored 5,286 points to finish in second place at the Texas Relays.

Morgan, a junior from Norma, N.J., will be running in the 100-meter dash after winning the event at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships on May 11 where she posted a career-best time of 11.48 seconds.

Another junior from Missouri City, Texas, Ratliff also won the 400 meters at the C-USA Outdoor Championships with her career-best time of 52.90 seconds.

Morgan and Ratliff join Smith, a junior from Houston, and Jackson, a sophomore from Chicago, Ill., on Houston's 4x100-meter relay team at the NCAA Championships where they qualified with a season-best time of 44.36 seconds at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships. Houston finished second at the C-USA meet behind TCU, which won the race in 44.25 seconds.

This marks the first time Houston has had six student-athletes qualify to compete in the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 1993.

Below is a meet schedule for the events in which the Lady Cougars will compete.

Thursday, May 30 Field Events 4:30 - Long Jump, Heptathlon 5:45 - Javelin, Heptathlon

Track Events 6:45 - 400 Meters, Women, Preliminaries 7:15 - 100 Meters, Women, Preliminaries 7:30 - 800 Meters, Heptathlon

Friday, May 31 Track Events 7:10 - 4 X 100 Relay, Women, Final

Saturday, June 1 Track Events 7:30 - 400 Meters, Women, Final 7:50 - 100 Meters, Women, Final

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