Online only: First women's XC meet cancelled

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/17/09 7:00pm

After eight months of preparation, the women's cross country team will have to wait another week to get their season underway. Rice's plans for the Texas A&M Invitational in College Station, Texas, were washed out last Saturday, pushing back the team's opening meet to tomorrow's Rice Invitational.Tomorrow's race - the only home meet of the year - will feature Houston Baptist University, Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University. The meet will begin at 8:20 a.m. at O'Connor Fields near the Jones School.

Although Head Coach Jim Bevan was looking forward to seeing his untried runners compete in last weekend's college-length 5,000-meter race, he said felt that the season's delayed start will not make a difference in the long run.

"[The delay] doesn't affect us whatsoever," Bevan said. "We got a really great practice in on Saturday. In general, the better runners, the ones that will be running in November, I would just as soon have start a week later."

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The week off also gave Rice a chance to look at true preseason rankings, which were published by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. In the South Central Regional poll, Rice is ranked second behind Baylor University. Last season, Rice and Baylor tied for second overall in the South Central Regional championships, finishing behind the University of Arkansas. In the national polls, Rice earned the No. 20 spot overall. At the end of last season, the Owls finished 22nd at the national meet. According to Bevan, this is the fifth consecutive year Rice has earned a top-25 preseason ranking.

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