If you’ve never been to a track and field meet, I highly recommend it. There’s always something going on and you can just sit back and watch or eat/drink or yell loudly.
Houston hosts an outdoor conference championship for the first time since 2003-04, and its first since joining the American Athletic Conference. The Cougar men have won 14 outdoor conference championships including the 2016 American contest in Orlando. The Cougar women are in search of their first title since 2006 and have won eight previous outdoor titles. Head Coach Leroy Burrell has won 16 outdoor conference championships (11 men, five women) during his tenure and 32 overall after claiming the men’s indoor title in February. The Houston men will look to sweep the indoor and outdoor titles for the second consecutive season and 10th time in program history.
UH enters the weekend with the top times in the AAC this season in the 110- and 400-meter hurdles (Amere Lattin) and 100- (Eli Hall) and 200-meter (Hall Jacarias Martin) dashes. UH has six of the top eight performers in the 100 this season, including two-time NCAA championships qualifier Cameron Burrell and Mario Burke, and five of the top eight times in the 200.
UH’s 4X100 relay currently has the second-fastest time in the nation (38.59 seconds) this season, while the 4X400 has ranked among the top 10.
In field events, UH features the AAC’s top performers this season in the shot put (Cameron Cornelius) and long jump (Trumaine Jefferson). Burrell has been bothered by a nagging foot injury and will not compete in the jumps this year.
Nathaniel Mechler, the indoor champion in the heptathlon, enters ranked second in the decathlon. He needs 7,500 points to receive an automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA championships.
18.88m, that was senior Cameron Cornelius’ first mark of the outdoor season. Almost two months later it is still the top shot put distance in the American Athletic Conference. Now, after missing all of last season due to injury, Cornelius is on the doorstep of qualifying for the NCAA Championships.