Women's Cross Country 2010

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/9/10 7:00pm

Even though every other Conference USA women's cross country team began their seasons last week, the Rice cross country team stayed in Houston last weekend to keep training. That decision by Head Coach Jim Bevan exemplifies the team's decision this year not to rush anything. After redshirting four upperclassmen in 2009 for a variety of reasons, this year's team aims to bring a full-force squad into postseason competition. Rice should have no problem this year bringing a loaded squad to most meets, considering that the team lost only one senior, Claire Shorall (Duncan '10), to graduation. That means the team will not be lacking in depth.

Seniors Britany Williams and Nicole Mericle, both of whom redshirted during the 2009 cross country season, will serve as the team leaders. Junior Allison Pye will also be returning from a redshirt season. Out of the four upperclassmen who redshirted in 2009, Becky Wade is the only one not returning in 2010, due to a torn labrum.

Bevan says he expects her to return in the spring, but Wade will not be back before the end of the cross country season.

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"Becky has an injury that started last October," Bevan said. "She had a great indoor season but then stuff persisted in her hip and later we found out she had a torn labrum."

"Tommy Clanton, our old team doctor who's now in Colorado, was able to get her to see Dr. Marc Philippon, the best in the world at labrum surgery who also performed Alex Rodriguez's labrum surgery. Everyone agreed that surgery was the best answer because this injury doesn't always heal and could take years to heal. She should be 100 percent by track season."

Two more juniors returning in 2010 are Keltie John and Marie Thompson. Heather Olson, Johanna Ohm and Halsey Fowler will all be key returners in the team from the sophomore class. Another returner will be Farrah Madanay, a freshman in eligibility who redshirted last season, her first at Rice.

Bevan is confident in the preparation the returners have done for the 2010 season.

"We feel like we have depth and we feel like we have quality," Bevan said. "We're looking to put it all together this season. They've done their homework over the summer and put in a good foundation and a good base of mileage."

The team also has a few newcomers in true freshmen Meredith Gamble and Elle Moody. Gamble comes from Houston and attended St. John's School. Moody is an Austinite who attended St. Andrew's Episcopal School in the capital city.

Although the team brings a great amount of depth to the 2010 season, at present the squad is not 100 percent healthy. While in Colorado this summer, Mericle bruised her knee rock climbing and has been recovering from that injury. Pye tripped on the Outer Loop and twisted her ankle. Finally, a book fell on Ohm's foot while she was helping during O-Week move-in. The injuries of these three will likely keep them from competing in the season's first meet this weekend.

Despite these injuries, Bevan is looking forward to the team starting the season.

"We need to get started, even though we're not quite at 100 percent," Bevan said. "We have three runners a little dinged up, but it's better to have injuries in the beginning of September than in November. We feel good about October and November right now and that's when the season really counts."

In College Station tomorrow, the team will open the season at the Texas A&M University Invitational. Besides Mericle, Ohm and Pye, the team should be competing in full. The meet will be a large and competitive one, with somewhere between 12 and 15 teams present, including the University of Texas at Austin, A&M, Baylor University, Stephen F. Austin University and Southern Methodist University.

In addition, out of the 10 ranked teams in Rice's region, eight of them will be in attendance at A&M.

Even though this week is the second week of most C-USA schools' seasons, the national qualifying period has not begun yet and this meet will not count toward the national meet. Thus, this week is mostly about the Owls discovering where they are and how they can handle the stresses of competition.

"Our main goal is to see how we compete," Bevan said. "We need to be exposed to what race competition is like, see where we are in dealing with the rigors of lactic acid and pain - the situations you can't reproduce in practice."

The high level of competition at A&M will help the team prepare for the type of competition they can expect to see all season. Ranked 28th in the preseason U.S. Cross Country and Track and Field Coaches Association poll, Rice is not even the only ranked team in C-USA. SMU earned a 22nd-place ranking and the University of Texas-El Paso is ranked 19th.

Alongside the three ranked C-USA schools, Bevan also expects to see a strong team out of the University of Tulsa in 2010. They will also have an advantage this season, as the C-USA meet will be held on Tulsa's home course.

Bevan sees cross country in C-USA as perhaps its strongest sport in 2010.

"We have four really competitive teams in our conference, and they could make cross country C-USA's best sport," Bevan said.

The main meets where Rice will be tested this season include the conference meet, as well as the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 25. At that meet, eight schools currently ranked will be present. Out of those eight, all are higher ranked than No. 28 Rice.

Another test of the team will come at the Pre-National Invitational. This meet is traditionally full of competitive schools, as it is the major meet held on the course of the national meet before nationals.

Hopefully that continued high level of competition will aid the team in reaching its ultimate goal: a return to the national meet. Before falling short of qualifying for nationals in 2009, the team had competed at the national level three seasons in a row.

Williams says that she has no doubt the team will reach nationals this season.

"At this point it's not even a goal of mine, it's a requirement that we make it to nationals," Williams said. "If we don't make it to nationals, this postseason will have been a 100 percent failure."

"We will get there and we will place high. There should be nothing that stands in our way: It's just a matter of putting in the work and doing it.

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