Women's track searching for fourth-consecutive outdoor C-USA title

By Natalie Clericuzio     5/16/10 7:00pm

Repeating a championship in any collegiate sport is a challenge. With the revolving door of outgoing seniors and incoming freshmen, the team dynamic is always in flux. But over the past three seasons, the women's track and field team has maintained a high level of excellence and won three-straight outdoor Conference USA Championships. This weekend, they were heading for a fourth. A title there would make them the first women's team to win four straight conference championships, a feat previously accomplished only by the Rice baseball team and men's tennis team. Before the C-USA Outdoor Championships, the women's track team competed in three meets since classes ended April 23. On April 24, Rice hosted the Fred Duckett Twilight meet at the newly christened Holloway Field and Ley Track. There, the team had several lifetime bests and improvements on previous times.

After the team's performances at the Twilight meet, Rice ran again on May 1 with a split squad at Stanford University and the University of Texas. At Stanford, senior Vicki Walker improved her 800-meter run time to 2:09.06. At Texas, senior Sarah Lyons ran her fastest 400 meters in 57.55, while classmate Ari Ince earned third place in the pole vault at 12' 10".

A week later, the track team hosted a meet at the Ley Track and Holloway Field on May 7. Sophomore Keltie John earned a season best in the 1500-meter run, finishing in 4:37.72, while senior Marie Thompson grabbed a lifetime best in the event at 4:39.06 to finish third.

---

---

Senior Tina Robinson was the standout of the meet, marking a school record in the hammer throw at 173' 5" and winning the event. Robinson also placed third in the shot put at 41' 6".

With those meets behind them, the team turned attention to finishing finals and training for the conference meet. Head Coach Jim Bevan says the team has made dramatic strides since the end of finals.

"It's nice that we're done with finals and everybody can catch up on their sleep," Bevan said. "They've got 35 weeks behind them in training going back to when the school year started. They get a chance to rest and sharpen up."

The C-USA Championships were hosted by the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., on May 13-16. Bevan believed that the fact that the meet was hosted in Orlando would be a considerable advantage to the Rice athletes, since the change in environment would be minimal.

"I'm glad the meet is in Orlando because it's not really different weather-wise from Houston," Bevan said. "That will give us a little bit of benefit compared to some of our competitors."

Bevan said he also felt that the team's ability to compete in high-pressure situations would help the team at the meet.

"I feel real good about the people we're taking to conference and where their bodies are at and how they're going to compete," Bevan said. "We have a real history of doing a good job competing when the meets are important. I feel like we're going to do our very best to defend our title."

The title will not be an easy one for the Owls to recapture, as several teams around the conference have the ability to find a way into first place. According to Bevan, in addition to the Owls, the University of Houston, UCF and even the University of Tulsa and Southern Methodist University have a shot at the title if things go their way. Houston is at an advantage due to their diverse squad and highly seeded entries, Bevan noted. Also, UCF will have a bit of an edge competing on their home track.

However, Rice does not only have their defending title to help them toward a fourth title, according to Bevan.

"We'll be taking 29-31 people to conference," Bevan said. "All the people we take have a chance to score. It's typical of a Rice team for us to have people entered in every single event and we have a chance to score in all events. No other team can say that.

"We try to have a balanced team with the ammunition to strike in all different areas. It makes for a very fun meet and an exciting meet for us because we have people everywhere. Rice is the only team with someone entered in every event."

That team-wide approach that Rice takes to conference meets makes it the perfect meet to end on as a senior, according to senior Claire Shorall.

"The best thing about conference is that there are no individual goals," Shorall said. "My goal is to in some way be instrumental in cheering someone on when things are getting rough or helping someone warm up or cool down and get their mindset right about the race.

"It's never about getting the time. You could take the clock off and it wouldn't matter because what matters is where you're finishing against the other competitors."

The conference meet is also the last chance for the Owls to qualify for nationals. Before the conference meet, the women's track team had 10 members qualified for the national meet, and Bevan hopes for the team to have between 12 and 14.

Before that, however, the team had to get its senior class to and from the conference meet, which was a bit of a challenge. With commencement occurring last Saturday, the graduating team members of seniors Shannon Moran, Katie Dollinger, Shorall, Walker and Shakera Reece walked Saturday morning and then flew out to Orlando. Because Moran and Dollinger competed in events on Thursday and Friday, they flew back and forth from Orlando for commencement.

Bevan believes the traveling back and forth shows the strong ties these athletes have both to their teammates and to their academic pursuits.

"It's important that you come to Rice first and foremost to get a degree," Bevan said.

For Shorall, there was never a question of if she wanted to attend conference and walk at graduation.

"It's fitting that it's something academic and immediately after something athletic," Shorall said. "It would be hard and it wouldn't be as fun but it would be the right thing to do.

---