Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916
Wednesday, October 04, 2023 — Houston, TX

Sports

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Wade finishes strong at NCAA championships

By Thresher Staff Reports

With a multitude of records to her name, fifth-year senior Becky Wade has already cemented herself as one of the greatest distance runners in Rice history. But in her five years at Rice, Wade had yet to qualify for the NCAA Indoor National meet to this point, despite making the trip for the NCAA Outdoor National meet two times and the NCAA Cross Country meet once.

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Women's basketball ends season in WBI

By Teddy Grodek

In a mediocre season, the Owls met at least one of their goals - they got to play postseason basketball. After a finish just above .500, the Owls were invited to the Women's Basketball Invitational, a 16 team-postseason tournament that plays all games at home sites. The tournament, though less illustrious than last season's WNIT berth, gave the Owl seniors hope of one last flash of glory.

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Basketball advances to second round of CIT

By Dan Elledge

Even though the Owls did not win an elusive bid to the NCAA tournament, they still get to participate in postseason play. Rice was invited to participate in the CIT, the College Insider Tournament. The tournament featured 32 teams with all teams coming from smaller or "mid-major" conferences with games played on the court of the higher seed.

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Men's Tennis drops home match to USD

By Dan Elledge

Another chance to score a great non-conference victory fell to the wayside this weekend as the Owls lost to another highly ranked opponent, the University of San Diego, on Saturday. The match had to be moved indoors because of the rain, but the Galleria Tennis and Athletic Center proved to be unfriendly to Rice as it dropped the match 5-1. Senior Michael Nuesslein was the only bright spot for Rice, as he racked up a two-set win to increase his singles record to 10-1 for the season, which ties his season-high as an Owl. Rice is now 8-5 and ranked No. 64 in the nation, its lowest ranking of the season.

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Graham already solidified place in history before Hall

By Daniel Elledge

Rice University baseball was not always the way it is now. In its first 78 years of existence, baseball only had seven winning seasons. They were the laughing stock of the Southwestern Athletic Conference as they never finished higher than second place and finished dead last 24 times. Just like with many of its other major Division I sports, Rice was not up to par with some of the big boys like The University of Texas and Texas A&M University.

SPORTS 3/14/12 7:00pm

Baseball has trouble with Top 10 west coast opponents

By Ryan Glassman

At 12-2 following a win against Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, the baseball team entered its toughest week of the season as the Owls played five games against Pac-12 foes ranked in the top 10. The slate began as Rice left the state of Texas for the first time this season, heading to Palo Alto to play second-ranked Stanford University in a three-game weekend series. After returning home, the Owls hosted 6th-ranked Arizona University for two midweek games at Reckling Park after splitting the series in Tucson last season.

SPORTS 3/13/12 7:00pm

Endorsement for Beer Bike tax increase

By Staff Editorial

This year, the Beer Bike blanket tax has been proposed to double in cost from $5 to $10. While at first this may seem like a jarring amount to charge students, this change will help Beer Bike attend to its annual budget deficits. The proposal needs 20 percent of the student population to participate in the vote and a two-thirds majority vote in its favor for it to pass. The Thresher endorses the proposed increase in tax and encourages students to vote in its favor.

SPORTS 3/6/12 6:00pm

Wade sets school record

By Dan Elledge

With the last days of 40-degree weather behind us, the indoor season is concluding as spring comes into full bloom and the senior distance runners are going out with a bang, none more so than Becky Wade and Allison Pye.

SPORTS 3/6/12 6:00pm

Women's Tennis reaches highest ranking in history

By Marie Walsh

While most of Rice spent last week kicking back and relaxing on spring break, the women's tennis team was hard at work on the court. The Owls had three prestigious victories over Oklahoma University, Brigham Young University and the University of South Florida. Despite having started with a loss against Texas A&M, Head Coach Elizabeth Schmidt stayed positive.

SPORTS 3/6/12 6:00pm

Basketball season ends in heartbreak

By Ryan Glassman

From the outset of the 2011-2012 men's basketball season, the theme for Coach Ben Braun's team has been postseason or bust. But after a pair of losses this past week by a combined three points, these postseason aspirations are in jeopardy, as the Owls will now have to sit and wait for potential invitations from multiple playoff tournaments.

SPORTS 3/6/12 6:00pm

Men's Track struggles at conference meet

By Thresher Staff Reports

Despite winning fourth and fifth place in the last two Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, there were some reasons for optimism amongst the men's track team to improve at this year's edition of the meet in Birmingham, Ala. The squad garnered a fifth place finish two weeks ago at the Texas A&M Invitational against several top teams from the Big XII and Southeastern Conferences, which was filled with great performances from veterans like redshirt junior Clayton Chaney and senior Dan Sloat, as well as newcomers like freshman pole vaulter Chris Pillow. Despite Rice‘s 1-2-3 finish in the heptathlon, something that the Owls had yet to accomplish in C-USA, was not enough to overcome the deficiencies in other areas of this team.

SPORTS 3/6/12 6:00pm

Ultimate looks to nationals

By Josh Rutenberg

The women's ultimate team scored a victory over Missouri State at the 25th Mardi Gras Tournament on Feb. 19 in Saint Francisville, La. Tomorrow, the team will have its sights set on the Music City Mash Up tournament in Nashville, Tenn and nationals in the near future.

SPORTS 2/22/12 6:00pm

Tennis loses to Alabama

By Dan Elledge

Ever since the beginning of the spring season, freshman Natalie Beazant has exceeded expectations. Beazant has proven that when she plays is 1-on-1, she cannot lose. Going into last Friday's match against 21st-ranked University of Alabama, Beazant had amassed a singles record of 7-0. But in this matchup she was going to be tested, as she was playing the 15th-best singles player in America, Alabama sophomore Mary Anne MacFarlane.

SPORTS 2/22/12 6:00pm

Strong arms power baseball to 5-0 start

By Thresher Staff Reports

While baseball national championships are won in the June heat of Omaha, they can certainly be lost in the mild weather of February and March. While past years' baseball teams have never gotten off to devastating starts in the early season, the last few years have seen the Rice sluggers compile rather average records through the first few weekends of the season. However, the 2012 team has shown little inclination to following the examples of those squads of yesteryear, taking a 5-0 record into today's three-game series against Dallas Baptist University (3-1).

SPORTS 2/22/12 6:00pm

Men's basketball slices Knights in half

By Thresher Staff Reports

Throughout Conference USA play, the men's basketball team has garnered attention for its inconsistent, up-and-down style of play, as Rice (16-12, 7-6 C-USA) has not had a winning streak of more than two games or a losing streak of more than three since conference play started in early January. This past week showed that that brand of play was still alive, for better or worse.

SPORTS 2/22/12 6:00pm

Swimming takes second at C-USA Championship meet

By Louis Lesser

After a season filled with exciting finishes, impressive performances, and promising contributions from the entire team, the women's swim team headed to the University of Houston Recreation Center Natatorium in order to defend its Conference USA title. On the first day of competition, not only did the Rice swimmers set new school records in the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay, but the Owls also posted a pair of marks that qualified for next month's NCAA Championships in those events. Rice's 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Michelle Gean, sophomore Lilly Marrow, sophomore Karina Wlostowska and senior Shelby Bottoms finished in second, tying a new school record time of 1:41.31. The foursome broke the previous school mark set three years ago by more than six-tenths of a second and reached the "B" cut for a possible trip to the NCAA meet in March.

SPORTS 2/22/12 6:00pm

Is super conference really better for Owls

By Daniel Elledge

With the college conference landscape changing more than it ever has, the Owls were wondering when the effect of realignment would finally reach them. Conference powers the University of Memphis, Southern Methodist University, University of Central Florida and archrival University of Houston accepted invitations to join the Big East starting in 2013, leaving Conference USA and Rice in a gigantic hole.

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