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September 8, 2006 > Sports > New runners hold the key to success for men’s team

New runners hold the key to success for men’s team

By Stephen Whitfield | Thresher Editorial Staff

After a second-place finish at the Conference USA championship meet last season, the men’s cross country team has a tough road ahead in 2006. A considerably less experienced team than the one that challenged for the title last year, Rice will need help from other top-tier teams in C-USA and from its own first-year runners if it hopes to win a championship this year. The path to the C-USA Championships begins tomorrow at 8:20 a.m. at the Rice Invitational, which will take place in and around the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium.

The only home meet of the season for the Owls, the Rice Invitational is unique because the collegiate competition is preceded by a two-mile “yahoo” race — open to the public — in which the runners traditionally yell “yahoo” after the opening gun. The “yahoo” race will start at 7:30 a.m.

Head coach Jon Warren (Jones ‘88) said he will not approach the Rice Invitational too seriously.

“Since we’ve only had two weeks of practice, we’re really trying to see where we’re at,” Warren said. “This meet will be a reflection of what they did over the summer rather than what they’ve done since they’ve been here. In some ways, it’s no different from a scrimmage in soccer or football, but at the same time we are lining up and racing other teams.”

The Owls have won this meet three straight years and five out of the past six. Winning the meet, however, will not be Rice’s main goal this year. The Rice Invitational, along with the other two meets on the schedule, is preparation for the C-USA Championship meet Oct. 28 in Greenville, N.C. With that date looming only eight weeks from the start of the season, the team will make sure that each runner is healthy and in peak competitive form in time for the championship meet. Junior Charles Hampton said the team will not lose focus on its long-term objective, despite the pressure to perform well.

“You want to put out your best performance for [the fans] because it’s the only opportunity that they’ll get to see you run,” Hampton said. “On the same token, you have to take it for what it is. It is an early-season meet that prepares you for the ones later on. As much excitement as we have for this, we have to keep in mind what the real goal is.”

Like last year, C-USA figures to be a three-team conference, with the University of Texas-El Paso, Tulsa University and Rice being the only three teams with a realistic shot at the title. The Miners are this year’s favorite. Last year’s runaway champion, UTEP lost only one runner from a squad that had five of the top ten individual finishes at the conference meet. One of those runners, Patrick Matgi, won the individual title with the fourth-fastest time in conference history. All of Tulsa’s top three runners from last year, including two top-ten finishers, return to a team that came within four points of Rice for second place at the conference meet.

Rice will compete without two of its top three scorers from last year: Marcel Hewamudalige (Baker ‘06), one of only three Owls to win an individual conference title in cross country, and David Axel (Brown ‘06), who came within seven seconds of a top-ten finish at C-USA in 2005. Hampton is one of the runners expected to carry the load this year and was the only Owl to place at the NCAA South Central regional meet last season. Hampton, who transferred from the University of Texas to Rice last year, said he will share his experience with the younger runners but would not call himself a leader.

“We’re a young team,” he said. “Being one of the older guys now in only my second year [at Rice], I know what it takes to get to a level to be competitive. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I need to be a leader, but I need to share what I know with the other guys who don’t have that experience.”

If the Owls are to fend off the competition at the top of C-USA, they will need strong contributions from some inexperienced runners. Rice has only one senior on the team — Pablo Solares — to go along with three freshmen and four sophomores, only one of whom placed in the top 30 at conference last season. Scott Zivick, one of the three freshmen, finished sixth in the Texas 5-A State Cross Country Championships last year. Another freshman, John Buck, was a key member of the Cinco Ranch team that won the Texas 5-A title last year. But Warren said Simon Bucknell, a transfer from Waitakere College in New Zealand, has been the most impressive of the three freshmen during training.

“Probably the one [freshman] who’s going to have the biggest impact this year is Simon Bucknell,” Warren said. “John Buck and Scott Zivick will be big players in cross country, but Simon’s the one who’s looked the most solid out of those three.”

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