Houston will take part in a number of top-10 individual showdowns on the track highlighted by the 400-meter dash where Houston’s Kahmari Montgomery, ranked No. 1 in the nation, Obi Igbokwe, ranked No. 3 in the nation, face a field that includes Rutgers’ No. 2 Izaiah Brown and South Carolina’s No. 9 Quincy Hall.
In the 60-meter dash, No. 5 Mario Burke will face Miami’s No. 3 Raheem Chambers and NC State’s No. 5 Cravont Charleston among others.
Houston’s top-ranked 4x400-meter relay will face No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 6 South Carolina among others.
Igbokwe will also compete in the 200-meter dash where he ranks No. 9 nationally, against Ohio State’s No. 2 Nick Gray, Tennessee’s No. 4 Mustaqeen Williams and Florida State’s No. 6 Kasaun James.
At the Howie Ryan Invitational, Houston will face several teams including local competition with Houston Baptist, Rice, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Texas Southern.
Houston’s field of competing athletes is highlighted by Taylor Scaife, who ranks No. 3 in the weight throw in the latest USTFCCCA rankings.
Action at Friday’s Howie Ryan Invitational is scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. with the men’s weight throw while running events will begin at 12:30 p.m. with the women’s 60-meter hurdles. Live results for the event can be found here.
Action at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational begins at 11 a.m. CT on Friday and 8:30 a.m. CT on Saturday. Live results for the event can be found here.
Scaife won her fifth weight throw of the season as she took Friday’s title with a throw of 68-3.00 (20.80). Priscilla Adejokun finished second in the weight throw with a throw of 61-6.75 (18.76).
_ _ In the women’s pole vault, sophomore Sarah Howe tied for third by clearing a height of 10-11.75 (3.35).
_ _ In the men’s shot put, freshman Triston Gibbons took home first with a throw of 55-5.00 (16.89).
_ _ In the 60-meter dash, Houston went 2-3-4 when Essance Sample took second with a time of 7.54, Ariele Adams took third with a time of 7.55 and Ashley Seymour took fourth with a time of 7.56.
_ _ Adams took second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.53, Seymour finished fourth with a personal best of 24.533 and Sample finished fifth with a time of 24.54.
_ _ In the 60-meter dash finals, Edward Sumler IV improved to seventh in the American Athletic Conference with a personal best of 6.80.
_ _ In the 200-meter dash, Houston went 2-3-4 as Sumler took second with a time of 21.43, Jordan Booker took third with a time of 21.56 and Frederick Lewis finished fourth with a time of 21.63.
_ _ Senior Jahnavi Schneider took home second in the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:10.50.
_ _ Houston’s women 4x400 meter relay finished third with a time of 3:55.02 and the men took home first with a time of 3:14.96.
_ _ Brendon Rivera took home first in high jump with a height of 6-8.75 (2.05).
Houston’s Obi Igbokwe shot atop the world leaderboard in the 400-meter dash with a blistering time of 45.35 Friday in the first of two days of action at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational.
_ _ Igbokwe’s time is the second fastest in Houston history behind the 45.24 of teammate Kahmari Montgomery’s 45.24 from last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships. The time is a personal best for Igbokwe who made his 400 debut for Houston after transferring from Arkansas.
_ _ The time is the 31st fastest in world history and the 21st fastest in American history.
_ _ Running in heats against time, Montgomery finished just behind Igbokwe, clocking a season best of 45.74 to finish fourth overall with the event’s top four times registering as the top four in the nation this season.
_ _ Running in the invitational 400, Igbokwe was one three Houston athletes to claim a title Friday as Trumaine Jefferson (long jump) and Jermaine Holt (open 400-meter dash) also took wins.
_ _ Jefferson made it a dramatic win as he took the long jump title on his sixth and final jump with a mark of 25-6.25 (7.78). After entering the finals of the event in second, Jefferson, who owns The American Athletic Conference’s top mark this season, claimed his second straight long jump title, having won the event at the Houston Invitational on Jan. 26.
_ _ Holt shaved over sixth-tenths off his PR with a time of 46.65 to claim the 400-meter dash open title. The time is the fifth-fastest time in Houston history and moves Holt to No. 3 on The American’s performance list this season and to No. 18 in the nation.
_ _ Mario Burke tied his season-best time of 6.58 in the 60-meter dash to finish second in the event. Burke, who ranks fourth nationally in the event, trailed only the nation’s No. 2 athlete in NC State’s Cravont Charleston who clocked a 6.54 Friday. Burke advanced to the finals with an automatic qualifier after winning his semifinal heat with a time of 6.61.
_ _ The men’s distance medley relay closed out action on the track Friday night with a second-place finish. The time of 10:09.34 moves Houston to No. 2 on The American’s performance list this season.
_ _ In the men’s shot put, Felipe Valencia extended his lead in The American with a top throw Friday of 60-8.50 (18.50) to finish fifth overall.
_ _ Naomi Taylor clocked the top 60-meter hurdles time in The American this season, tying a PR of 8.26 to finish ninth overall. Taylor advanced out of the qualifying round by winning her heat with a time of 8.33, tying her season best entering the weekend.
Nice to see him start the season healthy. Very bright professional career ahead of him if he remains healthy. Ideal rep for “The Perfect Method” as devolped by Coach Carl Lewis.
I was just looking, I see that USC’s World Record in the 4x400 last year (3:00.77) is not an American record because one of their runners is Antiguan. I read that the Aggies, who came in second place in that race (2018 NCAA Indoor Championships) at 3:01.39, set the American record.
Not sure how the Coogs set a new US record.
Regardless, it’s an amazing time and one of the fastest relays ever run. HTownSpeedCity is for real.
