Sports
 

UH Bayou-bound against top teams

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

The Cougar track teams travel to Baton Rouge Friday to tangle with 41 schools from around the country at the 2004 Louisiana State Tiger Relays at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. 

Field events begin at 3 p.m. Friday and at noon Saturday. The running events will follow on both days at 4:30 p.m. and noon, respectively.

The Tigers make formidable hosts. The LSU women and men won their respective 2003 Indoor Championship in Fayetteville March 12-13.

LSU's national champion men's and women's 4x100-meter relay teams and All-American hurdler Lolo Jones make their outdoor debut for the Tigers on Saturday. 

Jones led the LSU women to the Indoor and Outdoor titles and had an undefeated Indoor season in the 60-meter hurdles. She captured the NCAA Indoor title with a personal best time of 8.00 seconds. 

The LSU women rank No. 5 in the country and the Tiger men No. 6, according to Trackshark.com. The Track and Field Power Rankings have LSU men ranked fifth and the women second.

All-American Stanford Routt will lead the Cougars, ranked No. 50 by Track and Field. Shot putter Jonathan Reeves, pole vaulters Ron Veillon, Daniel Patton and Jason Meyers, the Cougar muscle, will join Routt in their bid to topple the champion Tigers.

Last week UH scored 107 points as a team and finished in third place behind Illinois and Grambling at the TSU Relays. The Fighting Illini won the meet with 267 points while Grambling scored 153 points.

Junior Alicia Cave will lead the Cougar women against a talented field.

Cave ran on Houston's winning 4x400-meter relay team and captured both hurdle events when the UH women's track and field team finished second at the TSU Relays on March 19-20 at the Rice University Track and Field Complex.

Cave teamed with LaDedra Guy, Renee Clarke and Keisha Howard to win the 4x400-meter relay in 3:44.67.

Following the LSU relays, the top teams from college and high school will compete in the Texas Relays in Austin, one of the most important competitions of the year. 

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