Defending C-USA champs aim to repeat

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/11/08 7:00pm

Last season the women's cross country team had a standout record, winning both the Conference USA and the regional championships on their way to finishing 16th overall at the NCAA national meet. Despite the loss of some key performers, head coach Jim Bevan believes this year's team can improve on last season's success. "If we stay healthy, we can be a better team than we were last year," Bevan said.

The squad's first stop on their quest to repeat championships will be this Saturday at the Texas A&M Invitational. The meet promises to be an excellent opportunity to evaluate the team's pre-season progress. Bevan also said the meet will be more challenging than the first meet of last season, with twenty schools slated to compete, including the majority of Rice's regional competition.

"Out of [the University of] Texas, Baylor [University] and Texas A&M, we're the only team that hasn't competed, so we don't know where we're at," senior Lennie Waite said.

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"Obviously I think the goal is to try and win, but Baylor always comes out of the blocks really strong.... They might be ahead now but what matters is that we beat them at regionals at the end of the season."

However, the meet will not be a true test of the entire team's potential, as two runners, sophomore Becky Wade and freshman Michaela Reynolds, are currently battling iliotibial band problems, injuries with their legs. Bevan described the team as being 90 percent healthy. Wade and Reynolds should be recovered from their injuries in the next week or so but will not be eligible for competition this weekend.

Reynolds is one of four freshman recruits, alongside Keltie John, Marie Thompson and Sophie Peeters. Bevan has high hopes for the future impact of the freshman class but is unsure of the role they will play on the team this season, because they have not yet experienced Division I competition.

"You see some things in training, and you see other things in racing, but so far so good," Bevan said about his newcomers' progress thus far.

The void left by Marissa Daniels (Jones '08) as well as Callie Wells (Sid '08) will not be an easy one for the team to fill. A strong runner all four years at Rice, Daniels ran at the national meet three out of her four years and, according to Bevan, was a strong leader as well.

"[Daniels] was historically the most consistent cross country runner we've had over the last twenty years," Bevan said. "Going back to Kate Gorry (Lovett '06) those two have really blazed the trail for the distance program to allow us to step up and be a national caliber program."

Wells battled health problems during her junior year and managed to make a full recovery her senior year. Bevan said that between the two of them, the team has a void both in talent and maturity. Even without Daniels and Wells, however, the Owls return five out of six national runners this season, and Bevan looks for them to make a an immediate impact.

Waite has stepped into her role as leader of the team. Not always a pure distance runner, the former varsity soccer player shifted from shorter to longer competitions during her track career.

Junior Nicole Mericle had a strong season last year, setting a personal best of 21:09 in the 6K at the regional meet.

In the sophomore class, Wade and Allison Pye are coming off successful freshman seasons. With a year of experience at big meets under their belts, Bevan said he sees them as helpful in guiding the team.

"[Waite, Mericle, Wade and Pye] are a core group of four as good as any we've had," Bevan said.

Additionally, seniors Claire Shorall and Laura Hudson have the ability to compete in the top six this season. Junior Britany Williams, the sixth runner at nationals last season, is coming off a strong summer as well.

"Everybody who was with us last year is fitter than they were last year at this time," Bevan said.

Even though Rice brings in a strong group of runners, this will be one of the toughest seasons for women's cross country in C-USA in recent history. Last season's second place team at conference, the University of Tulsa, is returning its entire squad and has added two strong runners from New Zealand. Their squad also includes last season's overall conference points winner, Alex Becker. In addition to Tulsa, Southern Methodist University always fields a strong team, and Tulane University and the University of Texas-El Paso could also provide Rice with stiff competition.

Along with the challenges they will face in their own conference, the Owls' schedule does not allow for many easy wins. The Notre Dame Invitational is a perennially competitive meet that will help prepare the Owls for the opportunity to qualify for nationals. The pre-national meet, held at the site of the national meet in Terre Haute, Ind., will allow the team to familiarize themselves with the national track as well as provide them another opportunity to run in a high-pressure situation. Finally, the regional championship, which determines whether the Owls will compete at nationals, promises to be full of steep competition yet again.

In order to repeat wins both at conference and regionals, Bevan believes his team must stay healthy. Last year, Daniels experienced health problems toward the end of the season that cut into the team's winning potential, and Rice needs to avoid that trap this season.

"It is a big, big thing in distance running because you're trying to get as fit as you can, but you're also trying to stay healthy," Bevan said. "Sometimes you're riding on an edge, and you've got to realize you can't do any more except where you're at, and sometimes when you want to do more and more."

Perhaps most important to Rice's success this season will be team chemistry. Bevan has no doubt that this squad will run together and thus create the opportunity for them to come out on top.

"We have a lot of esprit de corps," Bevan said. "Even though it seems like you're an individual out there running, there's a certain amount of team energy, or synergy, or whatever you want to call it that can exist. I sense that it's present in this group and that's going to be a big key to the what success we might have.

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