Turner took first in the men's long jump, as he also notched his first career championship with a personal best leap of 7.62m (25 feet). Turner's performance also set a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and is currently the 17th best recorded in the country this year.
Joining Turner in the long jump were junior Grant Hightower and fellow freshman Chris Carter. Hightower finished second with a personal record of 7.30m (23 feet, 11.5 inches), while Carter took fourth with a jump of 7.06m (23-02.00).
The first day of action came to a close with the running of the distance medley relays. The women's team of sophomore Erica Hanneman, senior Jennifer Hunt-Anderson, senior Jennifer Harper and senior Oumama Hallal posted the fourth-fastest time in school history with a clocking of 12:04.42, taking fifth. The men posted a sixth-place finish.
Looking to repeat as team champion, the men currently sit in second place, as they tallied 40 points to trail only Tulsa (42) after the first day. Memphis (37) and UTEP (37) are in a tie for third place. The women are in sixth place (17.50) after day one, trailing Rice (43), UTEP (39), Memphis (32), Tulsa (22) and UAB (21).
Six Cougars set personal records in the weight throw competition. Sophomore Ashley Bryant led the women finishing fifth with a mark of 17.02m (55 feet, 10.25 inches), bettering her pervious long of 16.08m (52 feet, 9.25 inches) by nearly a meter. Joining Bryant was freshman Kiara Pulliam, who finished 11th with a toss of 16.03m (52 feet, 7.25 inches). Fellow freshman Charlissa Foster posted a best of 14.84m (48-08.25) to finish 15th.
For the men, sophomore Brandon Hubbard led Houston taking an eighth place finish on a personal best of 16.82m (55 feet, 2.25 inches). Freshmen William Krokey (9th) and Sidney Flores (14th) also posted bests with marks of 15.58m (51, feet, 1.5 inches) and 14.35m (47, feet, 1 inch), respectively.
In the men's heptathlon, sophomore Wesley Bray and junior Morgan Floyd are currently in second and third, respectively. Bray (2,899) and Floyd (2,890) trail only Rice's Adam Phillip, who posted 2,971 points during the first day of competition.
In the 60-meter dash preliminaries, Turner set a new personal record with a time of 6.85 seconds. Freshman Christi Jones turned in a personal best time of 7.56 to advance to the women's final.
Sophomore Brittani Williams took fourth place in the women's pentathlon, finishing with 3,462 total points. The point total was a personal best for Williams, as she bettered her previous high of 3,269 set during last year's C-USA Indoor Championships.
In the women's 800-meter prelims, senior Jennifer Harper recorded a personal best with a time of 2:15.33.
Junior Dayo Ogunniyi posted a leap of 5.73m (18 feet, 9.75 inches), good for a sixth-place finish in the women's long jump. Also competing for Houston was sophomore Quin'shundolyn McPherson who finished 10th with a best of 5.53m (18 feet, 1.75 inches) on the day.
In the women's pole vault, freshmen Shannan Arnold and Morgan Lancaster finished tied for seventh and in ninth place, respectively.
Meet Notes
Five meet and two field house records were broken during the first day of competition in the C-USA Championships on Friday.
Memphis' Charlotte Abrahamsen set a meet and field house record during the women's pentathlon, scoring a total of 4,004 points.
Rachel Greff of Rice also set a meet record in the pole vault, clearing 4.07m (13 feet, 4.25 inches).
UAB distance runner Elizabeth Ambrus broke the meet and field house records in the women's 5,000-meter run, posting a time 16:31.83.
UTEP's Blessing Okagbare set new meet and field house bests in the long jump, leaping 6.65m (21 feet, 10 inches).
Steffan Nerdal of Memphis broke the meet record for the men's weight throw with a toss of 20.94m (68 feet, 8.5 inches).
Up Next
The meet will resume at 9am Saturday with the final three events of the heptathlon. Field events get underway at 11 am with the women's shot put. The women's mile will kick off the running events at 1 pm with the team awards presentation slated to begin at 5 pm.
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