Women's Cross Country 2009: Although team's leadership is depleted, women hope strength will lie in record numbers
Typically, a coach jumps for joy at a surplus of talent. Jim Bevan, the women's cross country coach, does not share this sentiment. This year, Rice's women's cross country squad is 22 members strong - the largest in university history - with half the squad new to the team, coming in as either freshmen or first-time runners. With so many runners to choose among, Bevan is still trying to figure things out.
The first meet of the season, the Texas A&M Invitational, held in College Station, Texas, tomorrow, will provide Bevan the opportunity to see the effect of competition on his expansive squad. And competition this meet can offer - somewhere between 15 and 18 teams will be present, including Rice's biggest regional competition: the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Baylor University and Southern Methodist University, to say nothing of the University of Arkansas, last year's South Central Regional champion.
Returning senior Claire Shorall says the opening meet will be most important as an assessment of the squad's inner positioning, not as a competition for a team still sorting itself out.
"Opening meets are always interesting," Shorall said. "We all get to see how we respond to competition, and it gives us an opportunity to look at where we are in general. . Every race is important, but if we had to win one, this is not the one to kill ourselves over."
When the team lines up in College Station this weekend, however, the swelling of the ranks will not easily assuage the loss of Lennie Waite (Brown '08) and Laura Hudson (Baker '09). Both Waite and Hudson ran at nationals last fall for the Owls, helping the team place 22nd overall in the country. Bevan said the team will miss both of them, but is confident about them adapting to the team's new, younger look.
"The main impact will be the loss of their leadership," Bevan said. "When you have a younger team, though, people grow into roles."
Two seniors stand ready to fill those leadership holes: Shorall and Britany Williams. Both are entering their final year of eligibility, and on a team brimming with first-timers, Bevan believes both can provide mentoring to the younger team.
"Britany and Claire are both great leaders, and Claire especially has been instrumental in helping the freshmen make the transition to college go as smoothly as possible," Bevan said.
Shorall, who admits to not being one of the squad's top performers, said she is looking forward to being able to be a leader in practice, though not necessarily competition.
"I feel old, and in some ways always felt old," Shorall said. "It's nice because I'm never going to be the leader on the course. That's the reality of my situation. I'm really comfortable leading in practice and away from competition. I'd rather see some of the younger kids develop because I can't lead from the front all the time."
There are plenty of young runners to whom Shorall will have the opportunity to lend a helping hand. After only a couple weeks of practice, Bevan says that he has been pleasantly surprised by the plethora of talent on the team.
"A number of young ladies are learning a lot about college athletics so far and have a lot of talent that, with time, will coalesce into their being top performers," Bevan said. "At this point, they just need to get their feet wet in competition."
In addition to Williams and Shorall, there are a few other returners whom the new runners can lean on for advice. Sophomores Michaela Reynolds, Keltie John, Marie Thompson and Halsey Fowler all have a full year of competition experience that will allow them to be leaders in their own right on the team. The junior class of Allison Pye and Becky Wade, along with senior Nicole Mericle, round out the returning team members.
Pye and Mericle, however, will have to sit out the first meet because of injury. Bevan expects Pye to return next week, but Mericle is a different situation. After a freak injury to her metatarsal on the steeplechase during NCAA Regionals last spring, Mericle began training again only recently after a two-and-a-half month hiatus from running. Bevan said the plan with her is to wait and see how training goes before making a decision on her competition status at the end of September.
One factor that may affect the decision about Mericle will be the strength of Conference USA this season. Last year, after a two-year winning streak, Rice fell to a strong SMU team at the C-USA meet. The Mustangs return their two-time C-USA champion runner, Silje Fjortoft, in addition to three new Scandinavian recruits, one of whom grew up running with Fjortoft. With that strong of a roster, the Mustangs will likely be a threat to the Owls this season.
The improved strength of SMU is endemic of the level of competition throughout conference this season. Bevan has seen that nearly every team has returned with deeper rosters this year, creating that much tougher of a challenge for Rice to reclaim its place at the top of the conference. Besides SMU, the University of Tulsa, East Carolina University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Houston return with stronger squads.
"Conference will be the toughest it's ever been," Bevan said. "We have our work cut out for ourselves to reclaim our title."
On the way back to the conference championship, Rice will attend some challenging meets. Bevan expects the biggest challenge for the team to come in two weeks at the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Invitational. The terrain at the meet contains rolling hills, and there will still be the Texas heat for the team to run in.
Other competitive meets will be the Notre Dame Invitational and the Pre-National meet, due to the high quality of schools expected to attend. Both of those meets fall in October, making that a key month for Rice's positioning for post-season competition.
Although Bevan can say what meets will be challenging for the Owls, he is unsure about where to place his team's chances this season. According to him, however, the team has the potential to win conference, win regionals and compete well at the national meet yet again.
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