Sports
 

Cougar men follow Routt to first-place

Cougar News Services

Never a genteel host, the men of the UH indoor track and field team outran the competition Saturday at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Meet at the Yeoman Field House, with a little help from sophomore All-American Stanford Routt.

The Cougar women won five events to finish in fourth place in the second indoor meet of the season.

Running for the first time during the indoor season, Routt smoked the competition in the men's 60-meter and 200-meter races. The sophomore met the NCAA-provisional qualification time in the preliminary of the 60 by finishing in 6.69 seconds.

Routt eclipsed his preliminary time with a new meet record as he blazed down the track in 6.67 seconds to win the event. Freshman teammate Carey LaCour made it a 1-2 finish for the Cougars in the 60 with his time of 6.73 seconds.

Routt earned All-America honors in the 200 at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in March 2003 when he raced to a third-place finish with a time of 20.54 seconds.

He established himself as a force to be reckoned with again this season, when he set his second NCAA-provisional mark of the meet in the 200, scorching the track to win in 21.13 seconds.

Junior Shayla Bowman set a UH record in the women's weight throw with a toss of 16.88 meters, shattering Katie Herndon's 1998 record of 16.69.

Freshman Caresir Hamilton soared to victory in the women's high jump, equaling her season high of 1.73 meters.

Senior Alex Cantu cleared 4.9 meters to capture second place in the men's pole vault and sophomore Jonathon Reeves heaved the men's shot put 17.06 meters to earn second place 

Sophomore distance runner Sesar Figueroa finished second in the mile with a time of four minutes,16 seconds.

The Cougar 4-by-400 relay team of Routt, Nicholas Garza, Michael Francis and LaCour ran to a first-place finish with a time of 3:17.35 seconds, nearly two full seconds faster that their time last week at the Houston Indoor Opener at Yeoman Field House.

Following a bye week, the Cougars will host the Houston Indoor Invitational at 9 a.m. Feb. 7 at the Yeoman Field House.

Programs competing in this weekend's tournament included Rice, Texas, Texas Christian, Texas A&M, Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M, Texas-Arlington, Miami, Army, Mississippi College and Stephen F. Austin.

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