I’m back from the holiday weekend and hope you all had a great weekend as well. A couple of nuggets you may have missed:
Several Houston athletes punched their tickets to Des Moines for the NCAA Track and Field Championships during the weekend at the NCAA West Region preliminary round over at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
Senior sprinter Grecia Bolton secured her third consecutive appearance to the NCAA championships by qualifying in three events. The Cypress Springs product is heading to nationals in the women’s 100-meter dash (second place, 11.22 seconds), 200-meter dash (13th, 23.65) and 400-meter relay (fourth, 43.97) where she’ll be joined by Tai’Shea Reese, Kiersten Brewer and Alicia Perkins.
Senior sprinter Reese also qualified in the 200, finishing with a ninth-place time of 23.48. Reese is headed to nationals in the 200 and the 400 relay.
The other multi-event qualifier from the Cougars is junior sprinter Errol Nolan, who continued his success in the 400-meter dash. Nolan posted a third-place time of 45.92 seconds and Nolan anchored a 1,600-meter relay team (Xavier Boyd, Doug Kelley, Dominique Charles) that posted an 11th-place time of 3:07.88.
Here’s the full list of qualifiers for nationals and how they fared at the West regionals:
Men
Errol Nolan (Jr.): 400-meter dash (45.92 seconds, third place)
Xavier Boyd, Doug Kelley, Dominique Charles, Errol Nolan: 1,600-meter relay (3:07.88, 11th)
Thomas Lang (Sr.): Triple jump (51 feet, 8 1/4 inches)
Women
Grecia Bolton (Sr.): 100-meter dash (11.22 seconds, second place); 200-meter dash (23.65, 13th)
Tai’Shea Reese (Sr.): 200-meter dash (23.48, ninth)
DeMeeka Jones (Sr.): 100-meter hurdles (13.09, seventh)
Tai’Shea Reese, Kiersten Brewer, Alicia Perkins, Grecia Bolton: 400-meter relay (43.97, fourth)
• • •
On the baseball front, Houston sophomore outfielder Landon Appling earned a spot in the Conference USA baseball All-Tournament team for his performance in the event. Appling tied a C-USA Tournament record on Thursday against Southern Mississippi by recording five hits in the game and going 5-for-6 with an RBI and three runs scored.
For the tournament, Appling bat .615, going 8-for-13 with five runs scored, two RBIs, two walks and a steal. It’s his second consecutive C-USA All-Tournament selection.
Here’s the full squad.
2012 C-USA Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team
Keaton Aldridge Catcher, Memphis
Keith DePew Infielder, UAB
John Frost Infielder, UAB
Ashley Graeter Infielder, Southern Miss
Corey Thompson Infielder, East Carolina
Landon Appling Outfielder, Houston
Jeff Schalk Outfielder, UAB
Michael Sterling Outfielder, Southern Miss
Eli Hynes DH, Memphis
*MVP: Michael Busby Pitcher, UAB
Dan Langfield Pitcher, Memphis
Chase Mallard Pitcher, UAB
Ryan Nance Pitcher, UAB
UAB won the tournament title, defeating Memphis 5-0 in the championship game. The Blazers (32-28, 9-15 C-USA) finished in seventh place in the league standings but won their first two games of the C-USA Tournament, beating Central Florida and Tulane to earn its spot in the title game.
Houston won its final game, defeating Memphis 7-3 on Friday night. Junior lefthander Matt Hernandez (1-2) went 6 1/3 innings allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits and struck out six for his first win of the season. Senior Codey Morehouse went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while Appling and Jacob Lueneburg each also recorded a pair of hits and an RBI. Sophomore Chase Wellbrock recorded his first career save with 2 2/3 scoreless innings and three strikeouts.
Interestingly, with Houston’s win on Friday and Rice’s losses on Thursday and Friday, the Cougars could have found themselves in the C-USA championship game had they found a way to win Thursday’s 10-inning affair with Southern Mississippi, which the Cougars lost 8-7 in a wild one.
