The men’s team finished second and the women’s team earned third at the Johnny Morris Invitational Saturday at Buffalo Bayou Park.
Lamar won the team men’s event, scoring 13 points to the Cougars 19.
Texas Orange and Texas White placed first and second before UH.
The top overall male performer was freshman Yonas Tesfai who completed the three-mile course in 15 minutes, 20 seconds. David Smith was close behind finishing in third with a 15:34 split.
“Yonas Tesfai was awesome, I am excited to have him in our program,” head coach Ryan Turner said in a release.
“We knew he was going to be good. In our opinion he was one of the top-30 senior distance runners in America.”
Absent, however, was senior Wesley Ruttoh, who is dealing with a toe ailment.
“We are resting him until the Missouri Southern Stampede,” Turner said. “Once he gets healthy I can see him contributing right away and improving our team.”
Junior Kathryn Ducommun was the Cougars’ top performer on the women’s side. She ran the two-mile course in 12:13, finishing in 15th place. Eight seconds later, senior Starla Garcia crossed the finish line to finish in 18th.
Senior Megan Munoz finished in 21st with a time of 12:35.
“I’m very proud of our women,” Turner said. “I thought they ran exceptionally well considering we were competing against one of the top teams in the country.
“We still have room for improvement, but collectively I thought their performance was a success.”