Sports
 

Coogs pumped for Texas Relays

UH travels to Austin for big-time meet; Burrell says men will be among the best

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

The UH track teams came out in full force Wednesday afternoon on the Tom Tellez Track to practice for the granddaddy of all races south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the Texas Relays in Austin, Wednesday through Sunday.

No Cougar was working harder than UH track and field head coach Leroy Burrell. 

To the delight of a cluster of runners near the stands, Burrell repeatedly sprinted around the curve of the track carrying a baton as he worked with a member of the women's relay team. 

A few minutes later, Burrell moved down the track to offer encouragement to a hurdler before grabbing a chair to watch freshman Caresir Hamilton practice the triple jump. 

"The meet is a lot more difficult to get into because UT's hosting the nationals, and a lot of the best of the best are coming," Burrell said. "We've had a little difficulty getting some people in, especially because we haven't had a great meet as far as team-wide. 

"We certainly hope we can go up there and improve on what we've been doing so far this year, but it's going to be real competitive. We're going to have a tough time, especially on the women's side."

The Texas Relays, along with meets at Pennsylvania and Drake, is one of the three leading relay meets in the world. 

More than 50,000 fans are expected to pass through the turnstiles at Mike A. Meyers Stadium where hundreds of high school and college athletes will compete in the 2004 Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. 

Littlefield was a three-sport star at UT who earned 12 varsity letters and later coached the track team for more than 40 years.

The Cougars sent 14 men and 15 women to Austin.

The Cougar women must compete without one of their biggest stars, C-USA Freshman of the Year, sophomore Ebonie Floyd.

Floyd was lost for the year because of injuries sustained in a car accident.

"Not having Ebonie hurts," Burrell said. "It hurts big time. We're really a freshman-led squad and you're in for a difficult time when you have that kind of situation."

Floyd won the 200 and 400 meters at the C-USA 2003 Indoor Championships and finished seventh at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships. 

The Cougar men must compete without All-American Stanford Routt, who is running pass patterns for the Cougar football game during spring drills.

"He came here to play football so we're glad to get him out here on the track squad," Burrell said. "We get a good deal."

"We're looking at improving on where we started. We had a bad meet last week at TSU, in my opinion, on the track. We're going up there (to Austin) really to get another run in and kind of redeem ourselves from last weekend. It's a high caliber meet this weekend, so it's going to be tough."

The Cougars will travel to Baton Rouge, La. April 10 to compete in the Texas A&M Invitational.

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