April 3, 2002

Austin, Texas - University of Houston senior Heather Howse finished fifth in the women's 10,000 meters at the Texas Relays on Wednesday afternoon. Howse completed the race with a career-best time of 36:50.50. Her time was an improvement of 2:34.85 over her previous career-best time of 39:25.35 at the 2001 Conference USA Outdoor Championships.

Rebecca Johansson of Texas-Arlington won the women's race in 35:55.91. Summer Bell, an unattached runner, finishe dsecond in 36:04.17 and Sarah Doyle of Texas was third with a time of 36:37.21. Katie Waite of Rice finished just ahead of Howse with a time of 36:41.11.

Cougar redshirt freshman Jason Banes, who was running in his first 10,000-meter race of his collegiate career, finished in second place with a time of 31:37.8.

Steve Metting of Texas won the race in 31:34.31, while William Moore of Team Lakes was third with a time of 31:38.42.

Senior Adam Callahan stood in seventh place through the first five events of the men's decathlon with 3,753 points. Justin Youngblood of Texas-San Antonio was in first place heading into the second day.

Houston also had two of the top eight athletes through the first four events of the women's heptathlon. Freshman Krystal Ward was in second place with 3,279 points and junior Briana Bassler was in eighth with 2,910 points.

Dee Brown of Arkansas leads the heptathlon through the first day with 3,377 points.