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Wade breaks 26 year-old record in Meyo Invitational

By Thresher Staff Reports     2/7/12 6:00pm

Senior Becky Wade is apparently incapable of running in a track or cross-country meet without setting a personal or school record.

A week after setting a personal record in the 3,000-meter run, Wade journeyed to the Meyo Invitational in Notre Dame, Ind. and broke Pam Klassen's (Jones '88) 25-year old record by six seconds, crossing the finish line in 16:21.81, good enough for first place. Senior Allison Pye was third, 14 seconds behind, and also set a personal record. Head Coach Jim Bevan described the back and forth battle between the two teammates.

"Becky led from the gun, controlling the first [kilometer] of the race, and then Allison Pye took over for the next 1K; Becky took the next few laps, and then Allison until a mile to go. Becky took over and made a long drive home to the finish, moving away from All-American Holly Knight," Bevan said.



"Becky and Allison went out a little too fast for where we're at this time of year (5:06 for the mile), and I blame myself for getting them a little too jacked up. I wish we would have been just a bit more conservative. Nevertheless, it was a big personal best for Becky and a new school record, as well as Allison's best indoor time of her life. I was proud of both of these young ladies for their performances and their courage," Bevan said.

In the other distance event, the mile run, freshman Allie Schaich ran in 33rd place, and her time of 5:07.44 was four seconds faster than her time last week. The 800-meter run saw seniors Sophie Peeters and Keltie John finish as the top two Owls in 21st and 40th places, respectively, and sophomore Kylie Cullinan was less than half a second behind John in 42nd place. Freshman Tyneisha McCoy and junior Lilian Nwora had decent efforts in the 400-meter run, with McCoy running a time of 57.68 seconds in her first collegiate foray into the event.

Moving to the shorter distance events, sophomore Simone Martin and freshman Precious Knighton both finished in the top-60 sprinters in the 200-meter dash. Martin also posted a personal best in the long jump at the Meyo Invitational with a jump of 5.03 meters that landed her in 16th place of the event.

In the 60-meter dash preliminaries, McCoy led the way once again, showing that even as a freshman she is Rice's preeminent sprinter, despite not making the finals of the event. Martin and Knighton finished 24th and 30th, respectively.

In the distance medley relay, Peeters, Knighton, John and Cullinan posted a time of 11:57.56, 12 seconds faster than last week, although they did not finish in first place like last week. The foursome instead took ninth place against top competition, giving the team confidence that this event will earn the Owls a large amount of points in the Conference USA Indoor Championship. To close out the meet, McCoy, Knighton, Peeters and Nwora ran the 4-x-400 meter relay in 3:55.91 to finish 17th, nearly two seconds faster than their time last week.

The Owls will head to College Station tomorrow to take part in the Texas A&M Challenge.



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