Women's cross country cruises to victory at home

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/23/10 7:00pm

The women's cross country team is preparing for a fight back to nationals. In a season when Head Coach Jim Bevan can say that "this is by far the most competitive [Rice's] conference and region have ever been," the team is responding with a measure of competitiveness to match it. After a rain-out two weekends ago, the team finally began its season at the Rice Invitational on Friday evening. The team finished in first place, with senior Britany Williams placing first overall at 14:25 minutes. Sophomore Halsey Fowler, senior Nicole Mericle and junior Marie Thompson finished hundredths of seconds apart to capture third through fifth place. Sophomore Heather Olson placed eighth in 14:52 and junior Allison Pye grabbed ninth at 14:52.

Bevan was more than pleased with the meet's results.

"We were hoping we could have five runners within 40 seconds because theoretically if you have five runners within 40 seconds for a 5K you can have five within 60 seconds for a 6K," Bevan said. "We actually had eight runners within 36 seconds."

---

---

The first major challenge for the team this season will come at the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul, Minn. this weekend. The squad's talented bunch of returning veterans and up-and-coming young runners will run in the 25th anniversary of the 6K race among eight other ranked schools (in addition to the 29th-ranked Owls), which include No. 6 Duke University, No. 14 Providence College, No. 16 Iowa State University, No. 18 University of New Mexico, No. 21 Michigan State University, No. 23 University of Arizona, No. 25 University of Minnesota and No. 28 Penn State University.

This weekend will be the first time Rice has attended the meet since 2006, when current team leaders Mericle and Williams were freshmen. That year, Rice finished 13th overall, led by then-senior Marissa Daniels (Jones '08) who placed 14th with a time of 21:49.

Four years later, Bevan believes his team can succeed at the meet.

"I feel like we can run with most of the schools there and just a few places can make a big difference," Bevan said.

However, the test will not be an easy one. The longer 6K course spreads across the Les Bolstad Golf Course. Although cooler temperatures may ease the conditions of the race, the course itself has rolling hills and a few hairpin turns, as Bevan described it.

Perhaps the biggest plus for the team to run the race, however, will be the atmosphere a race of this caliber can provide. Because Mericle, Williams and Pye all redshirted last season, it has been two years since they have been a part of such a high-profile race. Additionally, the competition can always help more inexperienced runners adjust to the rigors of a college cross country race.

Mericle expects that the race will be a team-building experience.

"The whole experience of going on the trip is going to be good for the team for bonding and for us to see what it's like to race in a really competitive meet like this and how important it is to work together," Mericle said. "That'll be big thing the team focuses on - running in a pack. I know myself, Halsey, Heather, [freshman] Meredith [Gamble] and Allison will try to run together in a pack for a while."

Bevan expects this meet will be more than adequate to expose his team to top-level competition.

"There will be about 10,000 people in attendance with a total of 3-4,000 participants," Bevan said. "They bring in a huge football-stadium size big-screen TV for spectators to watch the race from the finish line. It's a first-class, professional organization that puts on this race.

"You just don't get the chance to experience the atmosphere of this kind of meet in a less competitive environment."

With the conference and region shaping up to be packed with contenders, the Griak Invitational will give Rice a taste of what's to come later in the season, according to Bevan.

"There are four great teams in conference and it could boil down to a few points for that title," Bevan said. "Then there are five great teams in the region and one, two or three points could make the difference for who finishes in the top two in our region and gets to nationals."

Those top conference teams, according to Bevan, include Rice, No. 21 Southern Methodist University, No. 17 University of Texas-El Paso and the University of Tulsa. All three schools will compete at the Notre Dame Invitational today. Rice's region will be dominated by other powerhouses outside of C-USA as well, Bevan predicts, including Baylor, the University of Texas and the University of Arkansas. Baylor will be at the Griak Invitational with the Owls over the weekend, Texas is taking the weekend off and Arkansas will compete at Notre Dame.

This weekend also marks the first weekend of national qualifying competition in cross country. That means from this week forward, all cross country meets count toward qualifying for the national meet.

Bevan sees this as only adding more significance to this weekend's meet.

"If we beat a team by one point it could possibly be what gets us into the national meet in November," Bevan said. "If we finish first or second, we're halfway or two-thirds of the way there to making nationals because we will have beaten enough good teams."

And after the team's impressive showing this past weekend, Bevan likes his odds with this group.

"We've never had in the history of this program eight runners who are that close with good runners leading the pack," Bevan said. "I hope it's an indicator of the team strength and that's what it's going to be about this year. . I'm very happy with the team.

---