The Cougars continued their solid start to the 2010 indoor season during last weekend’s Houston Invitational at the Yeoman Field House.
The Cougars came away with four first-place finishes, two second-place finishes and four third-place finishes in an unscored meet. Two of the first-place finishes included sweeps of the men and women’s 4×400-meter relay teams to conclude the meet. The men’s team won in 3 minutes,15.2 seconds and the women’s team responded to head coach Leroy Burrell’s call for improvement with 3:43 finish.
“It was a good performance. We had Tyron Carrier running for the first time this season. He’s capable of running 46 (seconds), 47,” Burrell said of Carrier’s transition from football to the spring track season. “Errol Nolan’s doing very well, and Doug Kelley is solid as well.”
Fans were also treated to the return of Carey LaCour, a former Cougar, who ran as an unattached athlete and placed a world-best time this indoor season in the 60 meters in 6.59. UH’s Nadirah Shakir won the women’s triple jump with a 12.37-meter leap, also a personal best.
Cameron LaCour, Carey’s younger brother, finished third in the men’s 60-meter hurdles in 8.12, and Joseph Irabor placed third in the men’s 200 meters with a 22.1 finish.
In the men’s 5,000-meter race, David Smith placed second in 15:30, and Megan Munoz paced the UH women in the 5,000 meters with a second-place finish of 18:19. Kiera Puliam placed third in the women’s shot put with a throw of 13.88 meters. Grecia Bolton placed fourth in the women’s 60-meter dash in 7.43 — a provisional mark — and won the 200-meter race with a personal best of 24.5. Quin’shundolyn McPherson followed Bolton with a mark of 24.6 for a third-place finish.
“That’s an area of strength for us,” Burrell said. “We had five girls running under 24 seconds in the 200 meters outdoors, so we know we have that type of strength in our team. I feel like we haven’t totally exploited that area of our team yet. Grecia Bolton really competed in the 200, which I’m excited about.”
Burrell was satisfied, but hopes for more this season.
“All in all, (it was) an even level performance with a few superlatives throughout,” he said.
The Cougars hope to sustain their success Friday and Saturday when they travel to New York for the New Balance Invitational.
