Spring brings strong start for women's track in outdoor season
Now that spring weather is here to stay, the indoor track season has concluded and the women's track team has moved its competition outside. Rice began the airy competition last weekend taking an abbreviated squad to the Texas Southern University Relays, held in Houston. Although the meet was not scored, the Owls did quite well, winning four events and placing competitors in the top three in eight other events.
Junior Shakera Reece started Rice off with a win in the 100 meters with a time of 11.97 seconds. Freshman Cleona Oliver won the pole vault, vaulting a height of 11' 1.75", while sophomore Sarah Agara came out on top in the triple jump at 41' 1", good enough for Rice's first regional qualifying mark of the season.
Rice's other top finisher was junior Britany Williams, who won the 1500 run in 4:31.04, a lifetime best mark for her. In fact, Rice took the top three collegiate spots in the 1500, as freshman Marie Thompson finished second with a lifetime best of 4:41.47 and senior Laura Hudson placed third at 4:44.27.
According to head coach Jim Bevan, the TSU Relays are a good way for the track team to begin their outdoor season without much pressure.
"It's a lot of fun," Bevan said. "The stands are full - there are like 8,000 people. It's very exciting, especially Saturday night. It's a good experience and it's a good way to get started."
Now that the first meet of the season is out of the way, the Owls will be competing on Rice's campus at the Wendel D. Ley Track this weekend, starting Friday evening with distance races from 7:45-9 p.m. and sprints and field events Saturday 12-5 p.m.
A full Rice squad, with the possible exception of senior Lennie Waite, who is resting for later competition, will compete at this weekend's Victor Lopez Bayou Classic. Those in attendance will include Harvard University, the University of Michigan men's team, as well as partial squads from the Texas A&M University and the University of Texas, among others.
Bevan said the team has big plans for their only on-campus meet.
"Everybody [on our team] will be competing and we're hoping to win our home meet," Bevan said. "We have a good team."
Junior Nicole Mericle says the team is looking forward to finally competing at home.
"It'll definitely be a nice experience to have many people's family members and friends around," Mericle said. "I know a lot of people have been asking when we're going to have a meet at home. It'll be a meet for people to come out. It's one of our first meets [outdoor] and for several people it will be their first race."
Mericle also noted that the team will happy to honor ex-track coach, Victor Lopez, who will be in attendance.
The home meet will only be the first of several steps on the way to the Conference USA championship meet. Bevan said he believes the most challenging weeks for the Owls will come April 11, when many of the sprinters, hurdlers, throwers and jumpers travel to Albuquerque, N.M., and April 17, when the distance runners head to California for the Mt. Sac Invitational.
Bevan said these meets should help Rice qualify more runners for regionals.
"We'd like to get as many as 12 to 15 people qualified for regionals," he said.
The team will not only find challenges because of competitive meets but also from within their conference. Bevan said he believes that the University of Central Florida, the University of Houston and the University of Texas-El Paso will all challenge the Owls on their quest for their third-straight outdoor championship. UTEP may provide the biggest test, as one of Rice's most experienced competitors.
"UTEP has a girl [Blessing Okagbare] that was the bronze medalist in the long jump in Beijing. She didn't compete indoors because she was injured, but they have her [for] outdoors," Bevan said. "She long jumps, triple jumps, runs the 200 and runs the 1600 relay."
No matter how strong the competition is that the team may encounter during the season, they still maintain their high goals and aspirations for the outdoor season.
"We'd like to defend our conference title," Bevan said. "We've got three in a row indoors and we'd love to have three in a row outdoors. We're hoping we can continue to improve across the board and score more points at the national meet, but the biggest thing is to stay healthy and improve on a person-by person-basis.
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