2018 NCAA Championships Schedule | USTFCCCA Champ Central | Broadcast Schedule | Results
EUGENE, ORE. – The Houston men’s track and field team wrapped up a tremendous 2018 season, winning two national event titles on the way to finishing third place at the NCAA Outdoor Championship at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on Friday. The Cougars successfully defended their national 4x100-meter relay title, while Cameron Burrell won the 100-meter dash. Memphis’ Luke Vaughn won the discus throw, as American Athletic Conference athletes brought home three national event titles for the first time in conference history.
The Cougars’ third-place finish is the highest by an American Athletic Conference track and field program at the NCAA meet. It marks the first visit to the podium for the Cougars since 1959, matching their best finish in program history. The league’s three event titles are the fourth-most by a conference at this year’s NCAA Championship. Houston was one of eight programs to end the meet with double-digit All-America nods, as the Cougars' 12 All-America awards were tied for the fifth-most by any Division I program.
The athletes battled through rainy conditions, as Houston repeated in the 4x100-meter relay to open the national finals action. John Lewis III, Mario Burke, Elijah Hall and Burrell won the national title, breaking a 29-year-old collegiate record at 38.17 seconds. The Cougars’ time is good for ranking No. 5 in the world and also broke the Hayward Field record.
Burke, Burrell and Hall each returned to the track for the 100-meter dash, as Burrell bolted ahead of the pack in 10.13 seconds to capture his first-career individual national title. Hall, who won the 60 and 200-meter dashes at the NCAA Indoor Championship, clocked 10.17 seconds to take second place for the national runner-up spot. Burke—this year’s conference 100 and 200-meter champion—finished eighth place in 10.41 seconds.
On his third attempt, Vaughn threw a 198-2 (60.41m) effort that vaulted him to the top spot and into the final round of the discus throw. Vaughn then fouled on all three of his final attempts, but no one was able to knock him from the top of the podium stand. His NCAA crown is Memphis’ first since 1981, and first field event title in program and conference history. Teammate Rafael Vallery also competed in the discus throw and earned USTFCCCA All-America second team accolades with his 15th-place performance.
Houston’s Brian Barraza, The American’s 3,000-meter steeplechase record holder, paced ahead of the field for the majority of the race, but took a tumble on a barrier in the final lap, and dropped back to 10th place. Two-time conference 400-meter champion Kahmari Montgomery placed seventh (45.75 seconds) in the 400m finals to provide the Cougars with more key points, as they moved into second place following his performance.
Houston solidified its third-place finish with the final event of the day: the 4x400-meter relay. The Cougars ran for fifth place in their final track appearance of a historic 2018 season with a time of 3:04.03 to clinch their spot on the podium.
The women’s track and field programs will wrap up the NCAA Championship action on Saturday, as three conference athletes are set to compete in a final. The meet will be streamed live on the ESPN and ESPN3.