Pre-National meet brings another challenge to young women's squad

By Natalie Clericuzio     10/22/09 7:00pm

In atypical fashion, the women's cross country team elected to have the bulk of its runners forgo having their first meet at a small event. Instead, six out of the seven runners ran their first 6,000-meter race at the largest meet in the country last weekend, the Pre-National Meet held at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. Fifth-year senior Claire Shorall was the only Owl competing who had run a 6,000 for Rice previously, meaning that sophomores Halsey Fowler, Marie Thompson and Michaela Reynolds and freshmen Heather Olson, Johanna Ohm and Katherine Zebrowski ran the longer distance for the first time in their collegiate careers.

Despite the extended distance, the Owls competed as well as they had expected, placing 22nd overall out of 147 teams.

"I predicted us to place between 20th and 25th, so I was happy with the 22nd-place finish," Head Coach Jim Bevan said. "We are getting better with every competition."

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The team's finish was especially impressive considering the high level of competition at the meet, as seven out of the top 10 women's teams raced at the event.

"It's a very competitive meet," Bevan said. "Had we been at two or three other meets, we may have finished first, second or third. However, running against the best is the best way to see what it's like [to run in major meets]."

While the team fared very well overall, several Owls had strong individual performances. Fowler led the Owls, finishing 81st in 21:55, followed by Olson finishing 94th in 22:01.6 and Thompson in 22:05.9.

Bevan said both Fowler and Ohm ran the best cross country races of their individual careers, a challenging feat considering both the loaded nature of the meet and the longer distance.

Bevan felt their concentration on meet rhythm aided their success.

"Halsey and Johanna went out near the back of the field of 270 and ran their own race rhythm and moved up to pass 120-150 people throughout the course of the race," Bevan said. "They learned that success is not about other people, but it's what's best for them and their body."

According to Bevan, the fact that Fowler and Ohm so stringently respected their personal race rhythm was a major accomplishment due to the nature of the race. In such a large and competitive race, runners can be tempted to run at a faster rate in the beginning than they will be able to sustain for the duration of the meet. But Fowler and Olson did the opposite, running at a speed appropriate to their ability for the full race, a result of running together.

"[Ohm] and I train a lot together in practice so it's really nice to have the person you train with running next to you in a race," Fowler said. "It's a lot different than high school because in high school you don't have your teammates running right next to you."

Following two meets of stringent competition at the Notre Dame Invitational three weeks ago and at last weekend's Pre-Nationals, the cross country team has a weekend off before the Conference USA meet on Oct. 31 at The Woodlands, Texas, on the Bear Branch Sportsfields. The University of Houston is the meet host.

Rice placed second last season at the C-USA meet after earning the title in 2007.

Bevan says the team aims to remain healthy for conference.

"Our goals for conference preparations are first to stay healthy," Bevan said. "Seventy percent of the team got [a] bug, and we need to fend off all these ugly bugs and really stay healthy.

"[At this point in the season] you don't gain a lot of fitness, but what you can gain is doing things right and being confident, running races the right way and demanding a little more from your body when you're racing."

Rice will face stiff competition at conference. Bevan said the 25th-ranked University of Texas-El Paso, Southern Methodist University and the University of Tulsa will all be tough teams to beat.

That said, Fowler still believes Rice has a shot at taking it all.

"If everybody puts it out there like they know how to do and like Bevan has prepared us to do, I think we have a legitimate shot at winning," Fowler said. "It's going to be tough, but I feel like if we all use one another, I believe that we can do it.

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