Women's track throws and vaults to victory
Be patient. Don't speed up too fast. Get to my mark. Focus on pushing my hands. Up in the air - push off the top. In the couple of seconds of every vault for senior pole vaulter Ari Ince, that's all that goes through her head. Clearly Ince has the quick steps to clear a bar 13-odd feet in the air down to a science.
Ince's performance at last weekend's Houston Indoor Invitational, held at the University of Houston, showed her precise approach to her event. After no-heighting in the first meet of the season two weeks ago, Ince rebounded with a familiar gravity-defying performance on Friday, clearing a height of 13' 1.5". Her soaring vault brought Ince top honors in the event.
Ince said that getting back into the groove of practicing again allowed her to return to top form in her event.
"I'm in a lot better shape than two weeks ago, which was the first week we came back right after Christmas break," Ince said. "It's a tough turnaround. I didn't get to vault very much over break and then that was my first meet.
"Now I am kind of back in the groove of things and I have my head back on straight and I have figured out what I'm doing."
Bevan says Ince's mastery of the sport has allowed her to excel at such a high level in the pole vault.
"The pole vault is very technical, and Ari only had one practice session before her first meet," Bevan said. "Now she's doing what we saw in the fall. She'll get a lot of high bars and good attempts and clearances. I anticipate her to have a new school record and be a national competitor this season."
Ince's classmate, senior thrower Tina Robinson, countered with a first-place finish of her own. Following up her top weight throw at the first indoor meet of the season two weeks ago, Robinson repeated her gold-medal placing with a throw of 59' 3.5" in the weight throw, a new school record.
Head Coach Jim Bevan also attributed technical improvement to Robinson's repeat performance.
"Tina is a master of a difficult technical event," Bevan said. "You can see the progress - there are some finer technical skills and rhythm involved to maximize the sum of the forces on release.
"It take a while to figure it all out. She's becoming a national caliber thrower."
Ince's and Robinson's excellence set the tone for the Owls at last weekend's meet, which saw the team improve from every angle according to Bevan.
"Overall virtually to a person we were much better than two weeks ago," Bevan said. "We need to work out a couple kinks out, but it's what you expect from week one to week three in the second meet of the year."
Along with Ince's and Robinson's wins on Friday, the distance medley relay also competed. This DMR team stood out as freshmen comprised the whole squad: Meredith Gamble, Michelle Young, Kylie Cullinan and Aaren Pastor. The team of newcomers held its own, placing fourth overall in 12:18.34.
The pentathlon rounded out Friday's events, in which senior Bridget Ugoh scored 3,141, earning ninth place and a 100-point improvement over her last pentathlon performance in 2010.
On Saturday, the distance runners impressed, racking up second-place finishes in four events: the 5,000-, 3,000-, mile- and 800-meter runs. Sophomore Johanna Ohm took the top Rice spot in the 5,000, finishing in 18:09.72. Freshman Lindsay Miller finished third (18:24.68) and Rice also took fifth place with sophomore Farah Madanay's time of 18:34.88. All three improved on their times from two weeks ago. Ohm ran 15 seconds faster and Miller shaved 10 seconds off her previous time.
In the 3,000, senior Allison Pye led the Owls in 9:54.70. Junior Sophie Peeters grabbed top Rice honors in the mile in her first time to run the 1,600 indoors, with a time of 5:03.47. Pastor was right behind her in fourth place at 5:07.08.
To round out the second-place Rice finishers, defending 800-meter Conference USA Indoor Champion junior Keltie John finished in 2:12.94 in her first time in competition this season. John's finish was her fastest start ever and also was the top collegiate finish.
Two other Owls improved upon their 800 time from two weeks ago. Freshman Kylie Cullinan's 2:17.37 finish cut her time down by two seconds and teammate Marie Walsh cut four seconds off her previous time.
Also placing first among collegiate competitors was senior Sarah Agara in the triple jump, who placed third overall with a mark of 39' 11.5".
Senior Kimberly Stanford also impressed Bevan with her sprint-hurdle performance on Saturday, finishing in 8.62 in the final after posting a time of 8.69 in the preliminaries.
"On Saturday, Kimberly ran a tremendous sprint-hurdle race, finishing in fifth among collegians by one one-hundredth of a second," Bevan said. "She looks very, very good - the best I've seen her this time of year.
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