The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

Sports

Discussion

March 14, 2010

Courtney falls just short of medaling at NCAA Indoors

SHSU senior sprinter misses out on title by a narrow margin

The Huntsville Item

HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston State senior Michael Courtney was the first Bearkat to compete in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and he left his mark.

Courtney finished in fourth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 45.96 seconds on Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.

Georgia’s Torrin Lawrence won the national championship in the event, finishing in 45.23, followed by Kirani James (45.63) of Alabama and Florida’s Tony McQuay (45.74).

“He executed the race plan perfectly,” SHSU head coach David Self said. “He was faster today in the finals as he always is. He was in lane six and he knew he had to be faster in first 200 (meters). He finished strong in the final 200.

“He’s an All-American and he proved it today. I couldn’t ask anything more from him. I’m as proud as I can be of him.”

After qualifying for the finals with the second-fastest time in Friday’s preliminaries, Courtney and Self were confident about the senior’s chances.

“After the preliminaries, we started thinking that we may be able to win the thing. We weren’t just happy to be here,” Self said.

While Courtney didn’t win, he walked away with a strong close to his career at Sam Houston State where he was a 10-time Southland Conference champion, winning the 400 dash five times and ran on five first-place relay teams.

“He was running to win, but at the same time, he had a fantastic performance,” Self added.

Text Only
Sports
  • 2-11-kriston-driving.jpg Hornets still rocking

    The Hornets knocked off another one Friday night and improved their playoff chances immensely. Led by seniors Kriston Minor and Abram Veasey, the Huntsville boys basketball team bounced the Bulldogs from Summer Creek 52-38 to improve to 6-7 in District 18-4A play.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bulldogs back in the playoffs

    Centerville didn’t mess around with the Bulldogs Friday night and almost snuck out of New Waverly with a win.
    But thanks to junior point guard Brent Purvis making four out of five free throws at the end of the game, the Dogs came away with a 57-54 victory and solidified their third-place standing in District 23-2A.

    February 10, 2012

  • Hornet swimmers positioned well for today’s regional finals

    All the Huntsville swimmers wanted to do and needed to do in the regional swimming meet was to put themselves in position to qualify for state. Well, consider that mission accomplished. In every event in which Huntsville qualified for in the Class 4A Region V swimming meet, no matter whether it was as an individual or in a relay, the Hornets and Lady Hornets finished among the top eight in the preliminaries Friday to advance to today’s finals at the Magnolia ISD Natatorium.

    February 10, 2012

  • Hornet golfers get out to strong start in Bastrop

    Halfway into their latest tournament, the Hornets are set up well to win quite a bit of hardware. Following the first 18 holes in the Evans-Dodson Memorial golf tournament in Bastrop, the Huntsville boys are just four shots off the pace and have a pair of players within range from sitting atop the individual medalist leaderboard.

    February 10, 2012

  • Huntsville wrestlers gain experience at regional meet

    The experience wasn’t as long as they would’ve hoped, but they’ll take it just the same. Competing in the regional meet in Katy, a pair of Huntsville wrestlers earned hard-fought, elusive wins, but fell in the consolation quarterfinals.

    February 10, 2012

  • 2-10-hornet-swimming-jaron-wagner.jpg Raring to go

    They’re as ready as they’re going to be. With two weeks to prepare from their district meet, the Huntsville swimmers will take the next step toward qualifying for state today. Over the next two days, a group of Hornets and Lady Hornets will take part in the Class 4A Region V swimming meet at the Magnolia I.S.D. Natatorium with the preliminaries taking place today and the finals on Saturday.

    February 9, 2012 2 Photos

  • Next week’s playoff matchups all set

    After spending countless hours in the gym, the hard work has paid off for both the girls basketball teams from Huntsville and New Waverly. Now the fun begins as the Class 4A and 2A girls basketball playoffs get going next week.

    February 9, 2012

  • Scott: Kats still looking for go-to guy

    February 9, 2012

  • College Scene: Former Hornets doing well at respective colleges

    February 9, 2012

  • 2-9-gatlin-driving.jpg OUTGUNNED: First-place Mavericks shoot down Sam Houston, run winning streak to 14

    Texas-Arlington had an answer for every Sam Houston run Wednesday night on the way to a 75-63 victory over the Bearkats. It was the Mavericks’ 14th consecutive win and improved their Southland Conference record to 10-0.
    The last team to start league action with such perfection was Sam Houston in 2010, a team which won the conference’s regular season as well as the postseason tournament championship.

    February 8, 2012 1 Photo