The Cougars took home multiple first place finishes in the first meet of the indoor season. | File photo/The Cougar
Several Cougar competitors made their way to the podium despite results indicating that they need to do more fine-tuning.
Sophomore hurdler Amere Lattin started the day off right for the Cougars, taking home the gold in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.85. The men also had three more first-place finishers, two runners-up and two third-place finishes.
Senior distance runner Brian Barraza began his final year of eligibility with a victory in the 1-mile with a time of 3:58.66. Not only was he 17 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, he also managed to top his own personal best, the meet record and the school record in the event.
Barraza did this after redshirting the entire cross country season.
Junior thrower Cameron Cornelius tossed nearly a whole half-meter farther than the runner-up when he won the shot put competition. Cornelius is coming off a disappointing season where he did not live up to his own expectations.
He appears to have returned to the form that earned him back-to-back indoor conference championships.
Finally, seniors Cameron Burrell and Antwan Dickerson ended the day on a high note with a one-two win, earning 7.49m and 7.08m in the long jump.
Burrell seems to focus more on his long-jumping this season than his sprinting events. Dickerson is seen as someone who can rack up points in the long jump, an event the Cougars have not been as competitive as they wanted in recent seasons.
“I’m really excited about (Cameron) and Antwan’s long-jumping,” said assistant coach Carl Lewis. “We expect to do much better this year. Last year, Cameron was down in his jumping, but we expect him to be better than ever.”
The 60m is where the Cougar men typically dominate, but they failed to produce a top-three finish over the weekend.
Sophomore Mario Burke is coming off a historic summer but only managed a fifth-place finish.
Senior Curtis Brown as well as sophomores John Lewis III and Jacarias Martin ran in the event and are expected to greatly improve their game this season, but all fell short at College Station.
The women’s squad had their own share of troubles. Only two athletes managed to medal and four of them missed the podium.
On a positive note, freshman Samiyah Samuels won her first collegiate meet with a long jump of 5.93m in addition to sophomore Haley Houston’s third-place finish in the pole vault.
Samuels, a highly touted recruit with international experience, is expected to be one of the stars for the women’s team this season and help them return to competing for conference and national titles.
“Samiyah was number one in the nation last year,” Lewis said. “She has super-high expectations. I know it’s going to be the beginning of a great season for both of them and their expectation is to do well at nationals. That started for them today.”
