The UH Cougars men’s track and field team out-performed the competition at the Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend and were crowned kings for the second year in a row.
Head coach Leroy Burrell was named the Men’s Head Coach of the Year for the sixth time in his career.
"We are a really strong team from top to bottom," Burrell said.
"We have some talented areas in the field, especially the jumps. We also have a lot of senior leadership, and they are a really good team."
One of those leaders, senior Tremaine Smith, repeated as C-USA champion in the 200-meter dash with a winning time of 21.64 seconds.
"It felt good to get the win," he said. "I wanted to come out here and get the win for my team to help us get the championship."
In the 60 meter dash he finished second with a personal record of 6.79.
"I was expecting to win the 60-meters, too. But, luck of the draw, it just didn’t work out. It just added more fuel to the fire. It gave me more motivation," he said.
Senior Ivan Diggs continued to excel in the high-jump competition. He took first place with 2.16 meters (7 feet, 1 inch).
"It felt really good taking gold," he said. "I finally got one underneath my belt, and I was very happy about that. I feel really good heading into the NCAAs."
Although the performance was good enough to make Diggs a champion, he looks to do better in national competition.
"I really wanted to clear even more yesterday, so I would feel even more confident heading in. But hopefully I can get it at the nationals," he said.
However, freshman Ed Turner refused to be outdone by the upperclassmen.
"I wasn’t really nervous of the competition, I was more nervous of messing myself up. I live for the competition," Turner said. "There isn’t anything I can do but do what I can do and just take care of business. I was a little nervous, but more on my behalf than on anyone else."
It was obvious in his performance that what little nervousness he felt did not show. He won the long jump competition with 7.62 meters (25).
"It felt really good to win. As a team, we know we can do it. We all train hard every day together. We feel we are one of the better jump crews out here, so we just try hard every day. We compete every day in practice and just let it roll over into the meet, so it’s easy. It feels good to win as freshman, though," Turner said.
Turner also competed in the 60-meter dash and turned in a sixth place finish with 6.85.With his outstanding performance in the meet, Turner was named the C-USA Male Freshman of the Year.
"I knew that either Ed Turner, Chris Carter, Derek (Schutz) and Thomas Lang would have the opportunity to win that award," Burrell said. "I told all of them that it’s all just a matter of who performs the best that day. Ed just stepped up and got it done."
Freshman jumper Chris Carter kept the win streak going with his performance in the triple jump, coming in first with 15.22 meters (49-11 1/4).
"It wasn’t one of my best performances. I just want to do my best. That’s what really matters to me. I just want to go out and do what I know I can."
Freshman Thomas Lang came in third in the event with jump of 14.84 meters (48-08 1/4) and junior Jeremy Kelley’s 14.74 meters (48-04 1/2) resulted in a fourth place finish.
The men’s heptathlon – a contest of seven events – yielded a second and third place finish for the Cougars. Sophomore Wesley Bray collected 5,298 points for second place and junior Morgan Floyd had 5,036 for the third place. Bray’s total is the second highest in UH history.
"It always feels good to perform well," Bray said. "I know we both could have performed better. We both scored at conference, so we did what we had to do."
Sophomore Alex Bentley led the Cougars in the pole vault by clearing 5.01 meters (16-05 1/4) for second place. Schutz placed third, Bray fourth and freshman Levi Tatum fifth for Houston in the event.
The women’s team finished fifth-place overall in the meet. Burrell’s outlook for the women’s team in the future is optimistic.
"We have some work to do with the women; we’re just really young and a little thin," he said. "We just need to get the women to perform a little bit better. I’m very excited about it; they did a great job this weekend."
Junior Seun Adigun placed first in the 60-meter hurdles. Her time of 8.28 not only tied a meet record that was set in 2001 by former Cougar Jenny Adams, but also made the hurdler a repeat champion in this event.
"I felt really good," she said. "I definitely felt like it was an improvement on yesterday’s performance. I just wanted to come out here today and run the race I knew I could."
Sophomore Quin’shundolyn McPherson came through for the Cougars in the 200-meter dash. She came in second with a personal best time of 23.41 and Adigun placed fourth in the race with her personal best time of 24.34.
The Cougars will participate in the Iowa State Last Chance Invite next weekend. The NCAA Indoor Championships will take place March 15 and 16 in Fayetteville, Ark.
