The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 2, 2005 Page: 17 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER SPORTS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2,2005
MARSHALL ROBINSON/THRESHER
Junior running back Quinton Smith attempts to evade two Central Florida
defenders in the Rice's 31-28 loss to the Golden Knights Nov. 19 at Rice
Stadium. Smith led the Owls in rushing this season with 902 yards and was
named to the all-C-USA second team.
FOOTBALL
From page 14
in Division I-A.
Despite the difficult season,
several Owls were honored for their
individual achievements this week.
Syptak was named to the all-C-USA
first team and Smith was named to
the second team. Clement, Dillard
and center Austin Wilkinson were
named to the all-freshman team.
With almost 90 percent of the
players returning and with the team
playing Texas-El Paso and Central
Florida close this year, Hatfield said
he thinks the team will be better
next year.
"It's hard to put a value on experi-
ence, and there's no way of getting
experience without just playing,"
Hatfield said.
After going 0-11 last year, UCF
finished the regular season 7-1 in C-
USA and will likely go to the Liberty
Bowl with a win over Tulsa tomor-
row in the C-USA championship
game. Hatfield said he thinks Rice
can have a similar turnaround.
"[UCF] went 0-11," Hatfield
said. 'They went to work in the
offseason to improve and get bet-
ter, and then what happened? They
lost the first two games of the year.
Then all of a sudden they turned it
around, and now they're playing in
the [C-USA] championship game.
In sports, it's not that far from one
end of the spectrum to the other."
SPORTS NOTEBOOK
Swimmers compete at
Texas A&M Saturday
The Rice swim team finished in
fourth place at the Georgia Tech
Invitational held Nov. 18-20 in
Atlanta, accumulating 516 points
in the 3-day, 18-event meet.
This weekend the Owls will
compete in a dual meet against
Texas A&M University in College
Station, Texas. After that meet, the
team will compete in the three-day
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Invitational Dec. 17-19 to end its
fall season.
Despite winning only two
events, the Owls ended on a posi-
tive note in the Georgia Tech Invi-
tational, as the 400-yard freestyle
relay team of freshman Carlyann
Miller, senior I^ura Healey, junior
Andrea Hum and freshman Diane
Gu took first place in the final event
of the meet with a combined time
of 3 minutes, 27.98 seconds. Earlier
in the meet, sophomore Brittany
Massengale won the mile with an
NCAA provisional qualifying time
of 16:40.50, eleven seconds ahead
of the next finisher.
Sophomore Amy Halsey also
contributed with a third place fin-
ish in the 200-backstroke. Gu swam
the 100-yard freestyle in a time of
51.06 seconds to finish third, and
teammate Healey finished about
a second and a half behind her to
take seventh.
The Owls finished ahead of the
University of New Orleans, Gard-
ner-Webb, Miami and Western
Kentucky, but fell to powerhouse
Florida State, Georgia Tech, and
Florida Atlantic.
— Brian Mothersole
Women's cross takes
25th at national meet
The women's cross country
team finished 25th out of a field
of 31 teams at the NCAA Cham-
pionships held Nov. 21 in Terre
Haute, Ind.
The meet was the final com-
petition for the Owls in 2005, a
capstone to a successful season
that included a first place Con-
ference USA finish and a third
place finish at the South-Central
Regional Championships. It was
also the last collegiate meet for
seniors Kate Gorry, Anna Reeve
and Sarah Yoder, all of whom
are in their last year of eligibil-
ity. This year's finish indicated
an all-around improvement for
the team, who last year had only
Marissa Daniels qualify to run at
the national meet.
Daniels, a sophomore, fin-
ished in 58th place at this year's
national championships and was
the top Owl finisher for the second
meet in a row. She and Gorry, who
finished 79th, paced the team to
a 598-point finish, 67 points be-
hind Butler University and seven
points ahead of the University of
Virginia, which was ranked 20th
to Rice's 27th in the final Fin-
ishLynx NCAA Women's Cross
Country Coaches Association
poll. Stanford University finished
in 1st place with 146 points.
Sophomore Callie Wells finished
in 102nd place, followed by fresh-
man Lea Garcia in 174th, Yoder in
185th, sophomore Laura Kelley in
196th and Reeve, who was 198th.
— Dylan Farmer
VOLLEYBALL
From page 14
those kinds of things out of him, but
he gives you a lot of intangibles."
Despite the win, the Owls have
much room for improvement.
Rice shot just 59 percent from the
free-throw line and the Owls were
out-rebounded 36-33 by the smaller
Panther lineup.
"When our offensive woes have
kicked in, it's largely because we
get away from what we do," Willis
said. "We haven't been consistently
staying within our system. We've
had an emotional letdown on the
defensive side, so we don't have
as much energy on the offensive
side. That's been very much the
case this year [but] 1 thought to-
night we were a lot more consistent
throughout."
Before Thanksgiving, the Owls
lost at Marquette 82-65 Nov. 18 and
against IUPUI 58-56 Nov. 19, both
in the Blue and Gold Classic, before
defeating New Mexico Highlands
87-75 at Autry Court Nov. 22. The
Owls then traveled to Oregon,
where they lost 84-60 Nov. 26.
The Owls have non-conference
games agiinst Palm Beach Atlantic,
Texas Southern, Yale,and Princ-
eton at home and games at Arkan-
sas and Murray State over winter
break. Rice opens Conference USA
play against cross-town rival UH at
Autry Court Jan. 11.
boted?-stressed?
finish up the semester with
$
RICE BASKETBALL
Men's Basketball
vs Utah
Saturday, 12/3 3pm
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Women's'.Basketball
hosts the Hackerman
Invitational
Friday at 7 pm, facing Davidson in the first
round of the Gene Hackerman Invitational
at Autry Court.
Rice will face either former Western
or Texas-San Antonio on Saturday at 5:30
or the championship game at 7:30pm
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Obermeyer, Amber. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 2, 2005, newspaper, December 2, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443095/m1/17/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.