Track teams travel to Austin for Texas Relays (Women's)

By Natalie Clericuzio     4/9/09 7:00pm

While their classmates enjoyed the long weekend, the women's track and field team went to work at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas last week. Their work paid off as the team medaled in three out of the six relays at the meet and qualified two more runners for regionals. The distance medley relay led the way for Rice as the foursome of senior Lennie Waite, junior Brittany Washington and freshmen Keltie John and Sophie Peters placed second in 11:26.01 on Saturday. The sprint medley relay team of juniors Shakera Reece and Vicki Walker, sophomore Alex Gibbs and Washington finished third in 3:59.72. Rice's impressive relay performance was rounded out by a third-place finish by the 4x800 meter relay, run by Waite, Peters, Walker and John in 9:03.56.

In the individual events, sophomore Becky Wade and junior Nicole Mericle finished as a 1-2 tandem in the 3000 steeplechase, running it in 10:23.07 and 10:29.19, both NCAA qualifying times. Senior Callie Wells rounded out the Owls' performances in Austin, placing third in the 1500 run with a finish of 4:27.67. Her time was strong enough to earn her an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Finally, sophomore Ari Ince had a strong showing, winning the B-section of the pole vault, posting a vault of 12' 7.5".

The track team was also in action two weekends ago as the school hosted its only home meet of the year, the Victor Lopez Bayou Classic, on March 27-28. The meet attracted a record 1,700 athletes, making it the second-biggest meet held in Houston, according to Head Coach Jim Bevan.

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The home meet went well for the Owls, who took the title with 98.5 points, edging past the University of Texas's 92 points. Rice performed extremely well in distance and sprints, with 16 athletes earning finishes in third place or better.

On the first evening of the meet, four distance runners earned regional qualifying marks. Junior Britany Williams and sophomore Allison Pye finished 1-2 in the 5000 run, while Waite and Wade also placed first and second, respectively, in the steeplechase, with Waite setting a school record of 10:12.31. Mericle also took the top spot in the 1500 run.

In field events, sophomore Sarah Agara and senior Jenny Glover took the top two spots in the triple jump while junior Shannon Moran hit a personal best in the long jump of 19' 2".

Outside of the competition, former women's track and field coach Victor Lopez, the meet's namesake, was in attendance. After all of his work to develop the program, he is always welcome back on South Main, Bevan said.

"We enjoyed his coming back," Bevan said. "It's good for him to come back to his second home. He laid the foundation for the program. He's known as the father of the program."

For the members of the team, the home meet was a welcome opportunity to compete on familiar territory.

"It was good because it was easy for Rice students to come out and see that we've been working hard and see us in action," Ince said. "It's good to have friendly faces around while you're competing."

The next couple of weeks include some of the toughest competition the team will face all season, beginning with this weekend's meet at the New Mexico Invitational. The sprinters, hurdlers and throwers will travel to New Mexico to gain experience in a highly competitive meet.

Even though the team has been performing well across the board this season, Bevan believes there are still other competitors who will earn recognition in the next few meets.

Seniors Naquanza Alfred and Andrea Jackson have spent the spring on the sidelines due to injury. Bevan is optimistic that the two of them will heal up in time to be available to compete at the Conference USA championship in a month, with Alfred in the 800 and Jackson in the hepathlon.

Also, the discus throwers have been relatively quiet so far this season, due in part to a dearth of competitions. Future meets should provide them an opportunity to showcase their talents.

Finally, in the next few meets, Rice will begin competing in the 10,000. Bevan expects this to be an event in which the Owl distance runners, including Wade, Pye and Mericle, should excel and will likely earn national bids.

Although four weeks still remain before the C-USA Outdoor Championships, the next couple weeks can be the most challenging for the runners. Like all Rice students, the track team has the end of the semester work to wrap up as well as preparation for the rest of the season.

Ince echoed the sentiment that this time of year, she has to be particularly organized.

"I just have to be efficient in that I can't spend four hours a day on Facebook," Ince said. "You have to sit down and do everything in the amount of time you have to do it. We don't have as much time to goof around in between assignments."

Bevan says the team is doing their best to stay on top of things.

"It's a tough time of year, coming into the last weeks of school," the coach said. "We're hoping our student athletes are organized in preparation for finals [and] tests, getting their rest and are training hard. Once they're done with finals, there's two weeks of nothing until the C-USA Outdoor Championships, but right now practices have to be efficient.

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