Online only: Youthful squad gains valuable experience at Notre Dame Invitational

By Natalie Clericuzio     10/8/09 7:00pm

When the women's cross country team had their first practice in August with 11 new runners, no one predicted that six of them would be among the team's top nine. However, after last week's redshirting of upperclassmen Britany Williams, Becky Wade, Nicole Mericle and Allison Pye, Head Coach Jim Bevan turned to the numerous fresh faces to step up. Bevan tested the young runners immediately, running five freshmen, three sophomores and one senior at last weekend's Notre Dame Invitational. Not only was the meet highly attended, with 22 schools competing, but it also boasted the most elite competition in the nation last weekend. Ten ranked schools were in the field, including top-ranked University of Washington, No. 5 Princeton University and No. 9 University of Florida.

Even though Rice ran the youngest team in the field, the Owls grabbed 16th place. Bevan said the team did as well as he expected of them in such a competitive atmosphere.

"We did almost exactly as I scouted out we would be," Bevan said. "The meet was very elite, as it always is, and the top 10 to 11 schools there will likely be running at the national meet."

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The cutthroat atmosphere also affected the team's performance, especially considering the number of inexperienced runners. For the first-year runners, this meet was by far the largest of their short college careers so far.

Bevan believes the large number of runners at the meet contributed to Rice's finish.

"We planned to run a 'principal rhythm'-type race, but in the heat of the moment we had trouble following our plans," Bevan said. "It's very hard to prepare for 180 very good runners all mixed up together and running with someone around you the whole race."

In the case of this competitive race, though, the challenge of the elite atmosphere in the long run will aid in the development of the young runners, according to Bevan. He realized that the meet would be a big jump for some of the new runners, but he felt the experience would be beneficial to their improvement as collegiate runners.

"Our running that meet was meant to mature and give the younger runners experience at an elite meet as soon as possible," Bevan said. "There's no way to prepare but getting exposed to it."

Sophomore Marie Thompson echoed that the importance of gaining experience at the meet, saying that the larger meet presented challenges.

"It was an eye-opener," Thompson said. "Our other meets were smaller meets and easier to find each other and pack up. This meet, the gun went off and there were 150 girls shooting off at a very fast pace.

"It really showed us where we are and how far we need to go to make a good run to nationals. The young runners for sure got their feet wet."

While this race was largely about development, the majority of Rice's runners had strong individual performances. Rice's top finishers were freshmen Marie Thompson (62nd overall), Heather Olson (96th) and Johanna Ohm (97th) and sophomore Halsey Fowler (98th).

Bevan had high praise for several members of the team.

"It was the best cross country race of Thompson's career," Bevan said. "Ohm continues to improve, [and] Fowler continues to get more experience and run well."

Because of these strong individual performances, Bevan still maintains high expectations for the remainder of the season. The next big challenge for the team will come at the Pre-National meet in Terre Haute, Ind., which will take place Oct. 17.

"There will be no higher quality of competition [than Notre Dame], but the Pre-National meet is a bigger meet," Bevan said. "It's another opportunity to run with an elite field. It's a better race in the same type of conditions."

The Pre-National meet, so called because it is held on the same course as the national meet in December, will provide Rice the opportunity to earn points in qualifying for national.

But before the group who ran Notre Dame runs the Prenational meet, a group of runners are running tonight in the Houston Baptist University Invitational. Five or six schools will be there, including Rice, HBU and the University of Texas Pan-American.

Even though Rice, which had been ranked 27th, dropped out of the national rankings for the first time since 2007 after this weekend's meet, the Owls' season is far from over. The troupe of young runners has the opportunity to complete well at conference, regionals and possibly the national meet in the coming weeks.

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