The Rice Thresher, Vol. 99, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 2011 Page: 13 of 16
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Friday, September 16,2011
SPORTS 13
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CROSS COUNTRY 2011
Stacked squads aim to make Rice top cross-country school in
C-USA; begin journey today at Justin F. Cooper Rice Invitational
Thresher Staff Reports
Thresher Editorial staff
While football, basketball and baseball
may garner attention-grabbing headlines week
in and week out, it's difficult to find two other
teams at Rice that have been more consistent
in winning than the women's and men's cross
country teams. With experienced squads re-
turning for both teams, there are expectations
of the Owls sweeping the Conference USA
Championship on Oct. 31 at Wildcat Country
Club in Houston.
The women are clearly led by fifth-year se-
niors Allison Pye and Becky Wade, who each
have missed a season due to injuries, but are
ready for their final year of action and to add
more titles to their already long list of accolades.
"It's going to be an interesting year, since
we have two ladies that are leading the time
that have been to nationals all three years in
Allison and Becky, so hopefully we can make
it a fourth year," Head Coach Jim Bevan said.
"They've got a conference championship un-
der their belts and two conference runner-ups
and one regional title and two regional runner-
ups, so they're clearly some of the best runners
we've had at Rice."
However, the other members of the squad
didn't exactly let expectations diminish last
year, as senior Halsey Fowler and Nicole Mericle
(Wiess '11) led the way for Rice last year, guid-
ing the Owls to a second-place finish at the 2010
C-USA Championship and a 31st place finish at
the NCAA National Meet. Despite losing Mericle
and Britany Williams (Will Rice '11) to gradua-
tion, the Owls have an experienced roster across
the board, with sophomore Meredith Gamble
and senior Marie Thompson filling in key roles
on the squad last year. Junior Heather Olson and
redshirt sophomore Farah Madanay are other
Owls with conference championship know-how.
"It's an interesting team, not particularly se-
nior or freshman-laden, so we've got experience
at all levels," Bevan said. "We'll host the confer-
ence meet at Wildcat Country Club just south of
here, and it'll be great to have that course that
we're familiar with."
Before the C-USA Championship, the Owls
will compete at the Islander Splash in Corpus
Christi, which will feature top teams from the
South Central Region, as well as the Notre Dame
Invitational in South Bend, Ind. and the Pre-Na-
tional Meet in Terre Haute, Ind., both of which
annually host the top teams in the nation to
provide teams with a stiff challenge before their
respective conference championship meets. The
University of Tulsa will continue to be both the
men's and women's squads' main rival on the
course, with the Golden Hurricane sweeping the
races at last year's C-USA Championship.
For the men's cross country team, turnover is
a foreign concept this year, as all runners return
from the squad that finished third at the C-USA
Championship and tenth at the NCAA South
Central Regional meet. Fifth-year senior Michael
Trejo is poised to lead the pack yet again, along
with veteran runners in redshirt juniors Gabe
Cuadra, Matt Carey and senior James Llamas.
"We actually have everybody coming back,
we didn't graduate a single person from last
year's team," Head Coach Jon Warren said.
"They'll all be significantly better, not only
physically but mentally."
Filling out the squad will be sophomores
John Cavallo, Travis Roberts, Wyatt Doop and
Anthony Urbanelli, along with redshirt sopho-
mores Alex Weinheimer, Zach Casias and An-
thony Lauriello. Freshman Will Firth could also
figure into the question, but all runners will take
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part in the 36th Annual Justin F. Cooper Memo-
rial Rice Invitational, with the gun for the men's
race going off at 6:50 p.m. The Owls will be de-
fending their first-place finish from last year.
"Trejo should be our number one runner this
year, but not necessarily," Warren said. "He's a
29:44 10K runner from this past spring in track.
I think Gabe and Matt will be right near him
or with him. James, John and Travis should be
close behind along with a few others. I don't
think any of them are going to be superstar, con-
ference champion or top two or three in the re-
gion type of guys, but it should be a pack that's
pretty far up."
Warren is especially optimistic that, despite
the home course advantage, the Owls will face a
stiff test from the competition.
"This is arguably the deepest field we've had
at this meet, with teams like Lamar [University],
[Texas] A&M-Corpus Christi, McNeese [State
University], and Stephen F. Austin [University]
all ranked in the top 10 in the region with us,"
Warren said.
While the men's team may have enjoyed
steady results in the past, finishing third at the
C-USA Championship for the last five seasons
(they finished second in 2005), it's clear from
the schedule of meets this year that the Owls are
looking to gain additional experience versus top
competition prior to the C-USA Championship.
After their home meet tonight, Rice will head to
the Grass Routes Grand Prix, a new race in Aus-
tin, on Sept. 30 before the Houston Baptist Unvi-
ersity Puma Invitational, a meet that the Owls
dominated last year. The real test will come in the
form of the Pre-National Meet in Terre Haute, Ind.,
that will be run on the same course as the National
Meet, which annually hosts some of the top teams
in the nation. With just four meets before the
0 see Cross, page 14
Sophomore Lindsay Miller and
senior Sophie Peeters pace each oth-
er during last year's Rice Invitation-
al, in which the Owls took first place.
il
Senior Michael Trejo runs to a seventh
place finish at last year's Rice Invitational.
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Rutenberg, Josh. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 99, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 16, 2011, newspaper, September 16, 2011; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth398526/m1/13/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.