Women's cross country finishes 22nd at national meet

By Natalie Clericuzio     12/4/08 6:00pm

To complete one of the best seasons the women's cross country team has ever had, the team placed 22nd overall out of 31 squads at the NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 24. Considering the temperature at race time was 42 degrees, well below the Houston average, the Owls ran an impressive race. The Owls' invitation to the meet marked the first time a Rice team has ever made it to nationals two years consecutively. And in conjunction with second-place spots at both the Conference USA championship and South Central Regional, the showing revealed Rice's ability to compete at the top levels of collegiate running.

Head coach Jim Bevan credited much of the team's success to leadership from seniors Lennie Waite and Laura Hudson.

"Lennie Waite has made a huge transition from soccer player to team leader," Bevan said. "She performed exceedingly well, improved tremendously, and ran much better at Nationals. Laura Hudson has come so far based on the past four years. It's wonderful to have two people like that for leadership and experience."

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Junior Nicole Mericle, the South- Central Regional Athlete of the Year, led the Owls with a 58th-place finish and a time of 21:00. Sophomore Allison Pye finished just behind Mericle, placing 65th with a time of 21:05. Waite finished third for the Owls and 112th overall. Junior Britany Williams and sophomore Becky Wade rounded out Rice's top five, finishing with times of 21:41 and 22:05, respectively. Hudson and freshman Keltie John also completed the race, finishing close behind the top five with times of 23:17 and 23:32.

Bevan was surprised at the high level of performance across the board at nationals.

"I'm happy to make it to nationals two years in a row," Bevan said. "[But,] I'm a little disappointed: I felt we could've finished higher. We tied Baylor, which was 19th and ran reasonably well. We're trying to understand why we weren't a little better. The median time this year at nationals was 21 seconds faster than a year ago. Same course, colder, and windier and it ran 20 seconds per person faster.It just doesn't make sense why the whole country performed better at nationals.It's mind boggling."

The Owls also improved on their average times from last year, with the first, second, and fifth-place runners all running faster than their counterparts. In fact, according to Bevan, if the team last year ran at the speed of this year's team, they would have ended up eight spots better than their actual 16th-place finish.

The cool weather likely affected Rice's performance to some degree. Mericle, for instance, typically is known for her "kick" at the end of the race, according to Bevan, but for whatever reason, she was unable to sprint ahead this time.

"Nicole ran a good race, but she just couldn't kick," Bevan said. "I don't know why...[but] weather was probably a factor with her muscles being too cold."

Mericle also believed the cold may have affected her race.

"I locked up really badly the last 400 meters or so," Mericle said. "I don't know if that was due to cold weather or what, but...it was cold, I felt it."

Without the extra boost at the end of the race, Mericle likely added about 30 seconds to her overall time, the difference between her nationals performance and her 20:25 race the previous week at regionals.

Bevan was happy with the team's overall performance, even if they did not finish as highly as they would have liked. He noted that the team followed their strategy for the race, but the strategy just did not pan out as expected.

"The plan was to run a typical first mile and not get caught up in trying to be in front of everyone," Bevan said. "We believed people would run too fast and we would make up ground. I was very happy with our position after the first mile and I thought we'd be good to move up at least 80 spots. However, no one blew up, and we only went up 10 to 20 spots - not like we hoped. "

The team's success this season bodes well for next season, despite the inevitable loss of two seniors, Bevan said.

"We had a strong season," Bevan said. "We had a good year and our expectations have risen; the bar has risen and that's a good thing."

Mericle felt that although the team's finish at nationals was not what they were hoping to accomplish, the season was still a success.

"It was disappointing, but it wasn't really anything sad to beat ourselves up about because we got to the national meet and that was something that wasn't exactly a given because of all the injuries we had on the team [this season]," she said. "So it was good to be back there again and to be the first Rice team to make it two years in a row.

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