Sports
 

Cougars don't plan on breaking their stride

Men's and women's track teams are looking to improve upon already impressive records

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

The Cougar men's and women's track teams will host the Houston Indoor Invitational on Saturday at Yeoman Field House inside the Athletic/Alumni Center. Field events will begin at 9 a.m. and track events will begin at 11 a.m.

At the Leonard Hilton Memorial on Jan. 23, the UH men took first place while the women placed fifth overall. The Cougars are coming off a bye week UH track and field head coach Leroy Burrell said the team needed.

"We've improved, but we're not where we need to be yet," Burrell said. "I feel good with what we've accomplished among the men. I think we have one of the best sprint crews in the country. We've got real good depth and talent, and I believe we can improve upon what we did last year."

Not many coaches would make a statement like that after winning the conference championship and then losing the team's fastest sprinter to graduation.

"People may not believe that knowing we lost Robert Foster, an All-American in his own right in the 200," Burrell said. "But we've got a really talented group. And we feel real comfortable making a foray into the 4-by-400 with the sprinters."

The Cougar 4-by-400-meter relay team captured first place at the 2003 C-USA Outdoor championships, so it's bad news for the C-USA programs trying to dethrone the champion Cougars when Burrell says he expects his team to improve over last year's squad.

Since Burrell took over the track program from Cougar legend Tom Tellez on June 17, 1998, the Cougar men have won five Indoor and Outdoor Conference USA track titles, including the 2003 Indoor title, while the women have captured four conference titles.

"When you got a guy like Andrew Carruthers on your team with all the heart and dedication he brings to the track, a two-time conference champ in the 400 hurdles, just a gritty, gutty performer, you can't help but be happy with your crew," Burrell said. "We're excited about our prospects in the conference and on the national scene."

Burrell said he believes the 2004 Cougar men possess more balance than previous teams, and that's why he expects his team to take its play up a notch this season and make an impact on the national level. 

The Cougar women have won three of the past four Indoor and Outdoor C-USA championships, and defending C-USA 100-meter hurdle champion Alicia Cave will lead the Cougar women when they take the field Saturday.

"Our women are young," Burrell said. "We're really freshmen and sophomores, and couple that with losing one of our big guns last year, Ebonie Floyd, to an auto accident, and that makes for some difficulty, but we've got some real good talent.

"We've got the people to get the job done. We've just got to get people healthy and back on the track."

 Send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu