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Relays going for gold at Penn

The Cougars 4x100m relay team is milliseconds away from the fastest time in the country. At the Penn Relays they might take that crown.
To win at the Penn Relays means to win at the oldest track and field competition in the United States. Over 100,000 people will be in attendance at Franklin Field when the Cougar track and field team attends the Penn Relays this weekend. Head coach Leroy Burrell looks to lead his athletes to championships on the same stage where he set the 100m record back in 1990.
As with all track meets, the relays dominate the weekend. The men's 4x100m relay team currently has the second best time in the country. At the Mt. SAC relays, the team of senior Cameron Burrell, sophomores Mario Burke and Jacarias Martin and junior Eli Hall-Thompson ran 38.59s, second only to Louisiana State University's 38.57s.
The Cougars are confident they will be competing for a national title in the relays this June. Winning at Penn is just one more step toward that goal.
"To finally get the group we've been wanting to get on the track in the 4x100 together (and) to open up at 38.59s was really good," Coach Burrell said. "We ran 38.44s at the NCAA meet last year. We're basically a hairs breadth away from that in April."
The Penn Record in the event stands at 37.90s, set by Usain Bolt and the Jamaican national team in 2010. The Cougars are a long way from breaking that record, but they should be favored to win the event. Most of the top relay teams will not be at Penn, leaving the door open for the Cougars to improve their national time.
Going solo
The members of the relay team will also be competing individually in the 100m. Burell, Burke and Hall-Thompson will be joined by sophomores John Lewis III and Cameron Prejean, the most competitors for any single event. This is an important event for the Cougars as they have only two athletes that would qualify for the NCAA West Regionals if the season ended today.
Burrell and Lewis III currently rank No. 16 and No. 17 in the NCAA West with times of 10.26s and 10.27s respectively. The Cougars need to use this meet to get more guys with top national times and have them primed for the conference championships.
The other relay
Though not as flashy as the 4x100m, the Cougars currently have the No. 10 time in the 4x400m relay. At the Texas Relays the team of Burke, sophomores Raymund Clarke and Amere Lattin and junior Trumaine Jefferson won their event with a time of 3:04.38s.
The 4x400m is often overlooked at the meet, but given the Cougars success in the event, their athletes are excited to run and are aiming at bringing home gold.
"We've got a lot of goals as a team," Burke said. "We're going to win the 4x100, 4x200, the shuttles hurdles and individual races. Coach Burrell said we're trying to get at least five medals so we should be fine."
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Photo courtesy of UH Athletics

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