T&F Split Squad Weekend Meets (Barraza breaks 5K record again, Montgomery breaks 400m record)

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WHAT TO WATCH
On the track, the meet will open with senior Brian Barraza’s return to the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the first time since breaking the school record early in the season. Barraza ran 8:41.58 at the Victor Lopez Classic to set the program mark and post the third-fastest time in the country this season.

Houston will send a loaded sprint crew to the West Coast, with five different ranked student-athletes competing throughout the weekend. John Lewis III enters the 100-meter dash with the nation’s 10th-best time this season at 10.13, while Mario Burke holds the 26th-best mark at 10.28.

On the women’s side of the 100, Brianne Bethel enters the invitational event 40th in the country with a season-best time of 11.42, while her time in the 200-meter dash places her 29th in the outdoor circuit.

Elijah Hall is scheduled to return to action at the Mt. SAC Relays, where he will begin the weekend with the third-fastest time this season in the 200 at 20.11, while in the 400-meter dash, Kahmari Montgomery will look to improve on the 63rd-best time this season of 47.10.

Houston’s hurdlers will be well-represented on each of the men’s and women’s side. Amere Lattin enters the 110-meter hurdles with the NCAA’s No. 9 mark of 13.72, while also holding the fourth-best time this season in the 400-meter hurdles at 50.29. Freshman Quivell Jordan will also run the full-lap hurdle race, entering with a season-best time of 51.11 to sit 16th in the country.

In the women’s straight-track hurdle race, Naomi Taylor enters with the 39th-best time in the NCAA this season. Taylor’s season-best in the 100-meter hurdles came at the Victor Lopez Classic, where she ran 13.45.

Houston’s jumpers will also make the trip out west, including Samiyah Samuels, who enters competition with the 17th-best mark in the women’s long jump this season at 20-7.75 (6.29m). On the men’s side, Antwan Dickerson holds the No. 20 mark in the NCAA at 25-5.25 (7.75m), while Jared Kerr ranks 44th (24-11.25; 7.60m) and Trumaine Jefferson sits 56th (24-8.5; 7.53m).

Tonye’cia Burks rounds out competition in the horizontal jumps in the triple jump. Burks enters 36th in the country with a top mark this season of 41-10.5 (12.76m).

Houston will look to continue a strong season in the ring this weekend, with nationally ranked athletes in the hammer throw, discus and shot put competitions. Fresh off breaking her own school record in the hammer throw for the third time this season, Taylor Scaife enters competition with the 15th-best throw this season at 204-7 (62.37m).

In the shot put, Nora Monie currently ranks 40th in the nation with a mark of 51-5.75 (15.69m), while freshman Priscilla Adejokun sits 58th at 50-4.0 (15.34m). On the men’s side, Felipe Valencia holds the 42nd-best mark in the shot put this season at 59-4.75 (18.10m), while Cameron Cornelius’ season best of 57-2.0 (17.42m) ranks 75th.

Monie will also throw the discus this weekend, entering the competition 50th in the NCAA with a top mark of 170-4 (51.91m) in 2018.

Houston will once again look to impress in the relay events, where they will enter two squads into the men’s 4x100-meter relay. The Cougars are the only team in the NCAA this season to have two different teams post top-5 times nationally, with one team of Lewis III, Hall, Nicholas Alexander and Cameron Burrell running 38.92, while a separate team of Burke, Burrell, Lewis III and Hall have also run 38.95.

The men’s 4x400-meter relay team enters with the 26th-best time this season at 3:07.81, while the women’s team ranks 60th in the 4x1 and 79th in the 4x4.

Jack Thomas will be in action for the Cougars on Friday, however he will throw the javelin at the nearby Long Beach State Invitational. Thomas holds the seventh-best mark in the javelin this season at 234-10 (71.58m).

Live Scoring:

MT Sac: https://trackmeet.io/meets/979/teams/28167

Long Beach: Meet Results

Rice: Meet Results

http://www.uhcougars.com/sports/c-track/recaps/042018aaa.html

Sophomore Nathaniel Mechler was the first Cougar in action on the weekend, completing a decathlon at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, Calif.

Mechler opened the first day of competition with three personal-bests in the first five events, including the 100-meter dash, where he ran 10.73 to pick up 922 points to open the decathlon. Mechler would follow that with 970 points from the long jump with a mark of 25-0.75 (7.64m), while registering a personal record of 42-2.25 (12.86m) to score 659 points in the shot put.

Mechler wrapped the day with another lifetime best, this time in the high jump, where he went up-and-over the bar at 6-6.0 (1.98m) to score 785 points, before winning the 400-meter dash in 48.59 to cap the day with 881 points. Mechler tallied 4,217 points on the first day, a personal best.

On Thursday, Mechler picked up where he left off, achieving personal records in the first two events of the second day. Mechler opened the afternoon with a 870 points in the 110-meter hurdles after running 14.83 before throwing the discus 115-7 (35.23m) to pick up 568 points.

Mechler scored 760 and 567 points, respectively, after he went up-and-over the bar in the pole vault at 14-9.0 (4.50m) and threw the javelin 159-3 (48.54m) before concluding the competition with a time of 4:30.67 in the 1,500-meter run to score 740 points.

Mechler tallied a total of 7,722 points throughout the 10-event competition to finish second overall and first among collegiate competitors. The total for Mechler is the third-best decathlon in program history and moves him to No. 6 on the NCAA list this season.

HOW IT HAPPENED AT MT. SAC
Houston opened the Mt. SAC Relays in the field events with the men’s and women’s hammer throw. On the women’s side, Taylor Scaife finished ninth with a top mark of 192-4 (58.63m), while on the men’s side, Jose Herrera and Felipe Valencia finished 12th and 13th, respectively, with Herrera throwing 169-2 (51.57m) and Valencia marking 165-5 (50.41m).

Senior distance runner Maddie Brown capped the night at the Mt. SAC Relays with an 11th-place finish in the women’s 10,000-meter run. Brown finished the 25-lap race in 35:06.64, which stands as the fourth-fastest 10K in Houston history.

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Barraza was the final Cougar on the course for the men, ending the night in style by breaking his own school record in the 5,000-meter run. Barraza finished the 12.5-lap race in 13:38.71, shaving more than 13 seconds off his personal-best mark of 13:52.52 set in 2016.

Barraza finished the race in fourth overall and third among collegiates, giving him the third-best time in the NCAA this season. Barraza now holds two of the nation’s top-3 times after running the third-fastest 3,000-meter steeplechase earlier this season, while also setting the school-record in that event.

In his career, Barraza owns six program distance records.

Jared Kerr turned in an impressive day of field action for the Cougars in each of the long jump and triple jump. In the morning, Kerr used his second attempt of the long jump to travel a personal-best 25-2.75 (7.69m) to take third in the event. The mark for Kerr moves him to No. 31 on the NCAA list this season.

Kerr would return to action later in the afternoon in the triple jump, where his first attempt of the competition would prove to be his best. Kerr marked a season-best 49-8.5 (15.15m) to take sixth overall and move inside the top-100 in the event this season.

Jack Thomas made his return to the javelin on Friday at the nearby Long Beach Invitational. Thomas took just one throw in the competition and marked a distance of 223-9 (68.20m) to take 10th in the competition.

Houston picked up two more personal bests on the afternoon on the women’s side of the track. Meredith Sorensen opened the day with a lifetime best in the 1,500-meter run in 4:39.43, while Ebony White continued to make strides in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal-best of 1:02.86 in her second time racing in the event.

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HOW IT HAPPENED AT MT. SAC
Kahmari Montgomery turned in a record-setting performance in just his second outdoor 400-meter dash of the season. Montgomery raced one lap around the track in 44.91 to set the school record, breaking Chris Jones’ 1997 mark of 44.92. Montgomery finished the race third among collegiates, moving him to third in the NCAA this season and seventh in the world.

Action began on the track for the Cougars in the men’s and women’s 4x100-meter relay. The women won their section in a season-best 45.00 to move to No. 52 in the NCAA, while the men finished fifth overall and third among collegiates with a time of 39.55.

On the straight track, Houston turned in an impressive day in the women’s and men’s 100-meter dash. Brianne Bethel picked up an eighth place finish (fourth among collegiates) with a personal best 11.32, while on the men’s side, Mario Burke (10.28), Cameron Burrell (10.30) and John Lewis III (10.43) finished sixth, seventh and ninth, respectively, among collegiate competitors.

Bethel would return later in the afternoon to finish eighth in the 200-meter dash with a wind-aided time of 23.32.

In the long jump, a trio of Cougars picked up top-10 finishes on Saturday. For the women, Samiyah Samuels placed seventh (third collegiately) with a top mark of 20-4.25 (6.20m), while for the men, Antwan Dickerson placed seventh (second collegiately) at 24-6.5 (7.48m), and Trumaine Jefferson jumped 23-11.5 (7.30m) to take ninth overall and third collegiately.

Tonye’cia Burks picked up a top-10 finish in the horizontal jumps with a seventh-place finish (fourth collegiately) in the triple jump. Burks used her second attempt to leap a season-best 42-1.5 (12.84m).

Amere Lattin picked up a top-10 finish for the Cougars in the 110-meter hurdles, where he ran 13.91 to win the first heat. Lattin’s time placed him sixth overall and second among collegiate competitors. Lattin would return later in the competition alongside teammate Quivell Jordan for the 400-meter hurdles. The duo would finish 9th and 11th (third and fifth), respectively, in the event in 51.02 and 51.72.

Birexus Hawkins also competed in the full-lap hurdle race, picking up a personal-best in the event. Hawkins shaved nearly a second off her previous best, when she ran 58.71 to finish eighth overall and fourth among collegiates. Hawkins’ time moves her to No. 28 in the NCAA this season.

Nora Monie opened up throwing events on Saturday with a personal-best in the women’s discus. Monie’s final attempt of the afternoon traveled 171-6 (52.27m) to improve on her already second-best mark in school history and place her fifth overall. Monie’s mark moves her to No. 46 in the outdoor season.

Monie would immediately return to action in the shot put, where she posted a fourth-place finish. Monie’s fifth attempt proved to be her best at 50-3.5 (15.33m).

Felipe Valencia and Cameron Cornelius wrapped the meet for the Cougars in the men’s shot put. Valencia used his final attempt to mark 59-3.0 (18.06m) to take fifth overall and third among collegiates, while Cornelius’ first mark went 55-2.0 (16.81m) to finish seventh.

HOW IT HAPPENED AT RICE
The Cougars tallied their first win of the day in the men’s 4x100-meter relay. The squad of Thomas Alcorn, Nicholas Alexander, Kyle Fulks and Trent McDonald ran 40.46 to take the gold.

Houston picked up its first individual win of the day in the men’s 100-meter dash. Alexander returned for the evening session to run a personal-best 10.50 to take the gold. Alexander would run again later in the evening to claim the 200-meter dash championship as well, running a personal-best 21.21.

The day opened in the field for the Cougars in Houston, where Jennifer Ramirez picked up the first personal best of the day. Ramirez threw the hammer 155-10 (47.49m) to finish eighth in the event.

In the pole vault, Sarah Howe just missed a personal-best in the event with her sixth-place finish. Howe went up-and-over the bar at 11-7.0 (3.53m).

Also in the vertical jumps, Colin George placed third in the high jump, clearing the bar on his first attempt at 6-8.0 (2.03m). Hawa Wague also picked up a top-5 finish in the women’s high jump after going over the bar at 5-4.50 (1.64m) on her first attempt.

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