Handoff error costs UH’s 400 relay team spot in nationals
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The University of Houston men’s 400-meter relay team misconnected on a handoff Saturday night, which prevented the twotime defending national champions from advancing.
It was a sour end to an otherwise successful three-day run at the NCAA West Regional, where the Cougars qualified 10 individuals in six men’s events and three individuals and one relay on the women’s side entering the night’s final events.
Heavy favorites for a third consecutive title in the 400 relay, the Cougars’ hopes ended with a dropped exchange between Mario Burke and Nicholas Alexander. Sam Houston State qualified in the event.
The news was not all bad as the women’s 400meter relay finished second in their heat with a time of 43.93 seconds — behind heavy favorite Southern California — to qualify for the NCAA outdoor championships June 5-8 at Austin.
Amere Lattin, who qualified for nationals in the 400 hurdles Friday, advanced in the 110 hurdles with a time of 13.56.
UH will send two to nationals in the men’s 200 — Kahmari Montgomery, whose time of 20.35 was the fourth-fastest in program history; and Mario Burke.
Also Saturday, the Cougars’ Naomi Taylor qualified in the women’s 100 hurdles, and Rice’s Michelle Fokam grabbed the final spot in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 42 feet, 2 inches.
UH athletes to advance to nationals include Trumaine Jefferson (long jump), Obi Igbokwe and Montgomery (400), Burke and Travis Collins (100) and Quivell Jordan (400 hurdles).
Samiya Samuels (long jump) and Ashley Seymour (100) also advanced to nationals.
A&M men third in NCAA golf
Texas A&M improved nine shots and is in third place after two rounds of the NCAA men’s golf championship at Fayetteville, Ark.
The Aggies shot a 1under-par 287 total Saturday and are 17 strokes behind leader Oklahoma State (566) and five shots behind second-place Stanford (578).
Texas is fifth at 588 after a second-round 290 total. SMU is 15th at 601, TCU is tied for 20th at 606, and Baylor is 25th at 609.
Brandon Smith shot a 70 and is tied for ninth at even-par 144 along with Parker Coody (72) of Texas. Austin Eckroat of Oklahoma State is the individual leader at 6-under 138 after back-to-back rounds of 69. Cowboys teammate Matthew Wolff (73-66) is one shot back.
Bama beats UT to make WCWS
Alabama’s KB Sides and Bailey Hemphill hit backto-back homers in a fiverun third inning after a two-out error to pull out an 8-5 victory in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the NCAA softball super regional at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The outburst broke a 1-1 tie and all but put the game away.
The victory sends the Crimson Tide (57-8) to their 12th Women’s College World Series and first since 2016.
But the Longhorns (46-17) made the Tide sweat out every run.
Texas got within 7-5 on a one-out grand slam from Shannon Rhodes in the top of the fifth. It was a bit of redemption for Rhodes, who couldn’t field an awkward pop fly over her shoulder just inside the third base line that allowed Alabama’s Skyler Wallace to score from second on a two-out bloop single by Maddie Morgan to go ahead 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
Crimson Tide freshman ace Montana Fouts (19-5) notched her second win of the super regional despite surrendering five earned runs on seven hits.
For the weekend, the Longhorns rolled up nine runs (eight earned) on 14 hits in 14 2⁄3 on the SEC Freshman of the Year. The eight earned runs allowed Friday and Saturday were the most Fouts has surrendered in back-to-back games all season long.