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April 21, 2006 > Sports > Men’s track takes tangent at Triangular

Men’s track takes tangent at Triangular

By Stephen Whitfield | Thresher Editorial Staff

Despite three first-place finishes and four second-place finishes, the men’s track and field team came up short at the Texas Southern University Triangular, held last Saturday at TSU’s Durley Field.

Unlike in most college meets, participating teams at a triangular meet focus more on beating the other teams than on securing regional- and national-qualifying marks. Rice lost to Sam Houston State University 77-55 in its dual meet and fell to TSU 74-61. The Owls ran against two schools, but since the event was scored as two separate dual meets, Rice was really competing against each opponent in an individual meet.

The Owls will leave Texas for the final time this season to compete in the Oregon Invitational in Eugene, Ore. — one of the higher-profile meets in the nation. Along with some of the elite college teams like the University of Washington, the University of Arizona and the University of Wisconsin, the meet includes athletes from professional clubs such as the Indiana Invaders and Team XO. Some runners from the Australian national team will also compete.

Rice’s main problem at TSU was a lack of depth. Each athlete who entered an event was essentially guaranteed to score a point due to the dual-meet format, but the Owls failed to enter an athlete in several events, including the 100 meters, 110-meter hurdles, 200 meters and javelin. Rice’s most competitive athletes, its distance runners, were hampered by head coach Jon Warren’s (Jones ‘88) decision not to run an event longer than the 1,500.

Warren, who devised the event and created its schedule, said the meet’s structure put the Owls at a disadvantage.

“I put the schedule together, so it’s my own fault,” Warren said. “I didn’t design it to find a way for Rice to win. I wanted to set it up for us to have a good situation, [but] we couldn’t really take advantage of that.”

The 1,500 created an interesting scenario because Rice has several runners who primarily run in far longer events, while Sam Houston and TSU have virtually no presence in the long-distance events. Of the nine entrants in the 1,500, eight were either officially running for the Owls or were unattached Owls redshirting their freshman years. Sophomore Charles Hampton won the event with a time of 4 minutes, 2.7 seconds, which was 3.4 seconds ahead of second-place, freshman Brett Olson, and 4.4 seconds ahead of third-place, senior David Axel. Warren said racing in a shorter event fit with the runners’ training for the C-USA title meet.

“We essentially trained through the week, but we look at [the TSU Triangular] as a specific speed work day,” Warren said. “They had fun with it. It’s not like they were running in the 100. … It was a fun thing to do, but it was still good prep work.”

The triangular-style meet is similar to the atmosphere the teams will encounter in their conference meets. Since the Owls will head into the Conference USA Outdoor Championships with numbers similar to those they had at TSU, the meet’s outcome could be a forewarning of future problems. However, Warren said he thinks Rice’s performances at conference will be stronger.

“As the numbers increase, we’ll have a better shot, because other teams will fill in the blanks,” Warren said. “It’s not like you just give points away. … A top-three finish would be an outstanding finish … but I think that if things fall into place and we go into it with the right attitude and the right preparation, then we have a snowball’s chance [to win the conference title].”

The two most notable performances at TSU came from athletes who are in the midst of stellar years, juniors Pablo Solares in the 800 and Devon Fanfair in the triple jump. Solares improved upon a personal best by winning the 800 in 1:49.30, nearly 5 seconds ahead of second place. Solares, who had already qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships in both the 800 and the 1,500, will compete in Oregon with very little left to accomplish individually. Warren said he would be surprised if Solares finishes well in both events given that they fall on separate days.

“During the season, this is our week to cut back before our big trip to see what they can do,” Warren said. “If the conditions are good and the race is there, [Solares] could be pretty quick. He is doing the 1,500 on Friday and the 800 on Saturday, so it’d be kind of shocking if he competed on both.”

Fanfair regionally qualified in the triple jump at the season-opening TSU Relays in March and seems to be rounding into form heading into the conference meet. He took advantage of a favorable wind to jump 51 feet, 5.75 inches and win the triple jump. The mark was the second best in C-USA this season, behnd only senior Jason Powell’s 51-8.5 from the Texas Relays April 8, and is also one of the 10 best in the nation.

Fanfair and Powell teamed with seniors Eric Spear and Bahnsen Miller to finish second in the 4x100 relay with a time of 42.62 seconds.

Fanfair said the prospect of performing in front of friends and family at TSU motivated him.

“I had a lot of people there at TSU who supported me, and I appreciated that,” Fanfair said. “That fired me up,”

Fanfair and Powell’s success will be instrumental in any Rice bid for a C-USA title. The University of Texas-El Paso, this year’s indoor champion, is the clear favorite to win the outdoor crown as well. The Miners’ hopes, however, ride on the legs of Mickael Hanany, the NCAA runner-up in the high jump in 2005. UTEP was able to win the C-USA indoor meet despite having only three entrants in the field events, primarily because Hanany won the high jump, long jump and triple jump.

If the Owls are to upset UTEP, Fanfair and Powell will have to limit Hanany’s scoring in the jumps. Fanfair said he and Powell are going to challenge Hanany at conference.

“Mickael is a great guy,” Fanfair said. “We’re always out there encouraging each other, but … we’re sick and tired of him scoring thirty points every conference [meet], indoor and outdoor. It’s going to be good. We’re going to scare him real good.”

In other events, sophomore Omar Wright finished second overall and first among collegians in the high jump, clearing 6-8.75. Spear finished second out of three finishers in the 400 hurdles with a time of 54.96 seconds. Miller ran the 400 in 49.51 to place third out of five runners. Senior Luke Stadel, who is redshirting this season and competing unattached, won both the shot put and the discus by throwing 56-0 and 177-9, respectively.

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