Houston’s track and field team opened the season with a bang on Friday at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational highlighted by standout performances by sophomore Shaun Maswanganyi in the 200-meter dash and graduate student Priscilla Adejokun in the weighted throw.
The men’s 200-meter dash team set the tone for the Cougars’ impressive day. UH scored eight top-10 finishes, including having the top six finishers. Maswanganyi finished the race first with a time of 21.20 narrowly edging out teammate Jordan Booker, who ran a 21.21.
The Cougars also dominated the men’s triple jump with junior Jadon Brome earning first place with a jump of 15.24 meters. Following him with a second-place finish was sophomore Caleb Malbrough with a jump of 15.07 meters.
Junior Quinton Stringfellow and sophomore Ayomide Ogunbunmi secured third and fourth place respectively with jumps of 14.84 and 14.77 meters.
UH’s men ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams finished first and second in the 4×400 relay. The ‘A’ team ran a 3:17.25 while the ‘B’ finished with a time of 3:28.49.
In the men’s pole vault, UH scored two top-five finishes. Junior Christyan Sampy finished third overall and graduate student Ben Percefull earned fourth place.
On the women’s side, Adejokun hit a mark of 21.76 in the weighted throw, putting her in the No. 1 spot nationally.
Graduate student Naomi Taylor ran an 8.24 in the 60-meter hurdles to finish second.
Sophomore Camille Rutherford earned the nation’s No. 5 time in the 200-meter after running a 24.16.