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January 19, 2007 > Sports > Promising newcomers hope to ease rebuilding for women’s team

Promising newcomers hope to ease rebuilding for women’s team

By Dylan Farmer | Thresher Editorial Staff

A year after taking second place in the Conference USA Indoor Championships and third in the C-USA Outdoor Championships, the 2007 women’s track and field team has a few big spots to fill. Krystal Robinson (Baker ‘06), Sarah Yoder (Baker ‘06) and Flo Nwagwu (Sid ‘06) all graduated, leaving behind a talented but small returning class and what might seem to be irreplaceable gaps in the roster.

However, head coach Jim Bevan said this year’s newcomers have more than enough talent to ease if not eliminate any pains of the rebuilding process.

“We have a great freshman class and we’re looking forward to their ability to mature quickly to help us,” Bevan said. “Most of them have never run indoor track - it will be something new, but this is a foundation for the future.”

This season’s freshmen include a number of runners who have the ability to make an immediate impact. Eunique Hamilton was the Texas 5A state champion in triple jump, and fellow freshman Victoria Walker was state champion in the 800-meter run. Nicole Mericle was runner-up in both the 800 and 1600-meter run in the Texas SPC Championships, but both of those finishes were behind Brittany Williams, who also joins the Rice squad. Katie Dollinger was the 2A shotput champion in Florida, and Shakera Reece finished second in last year’s Barbados junior championships.

Junior Callie Wells said the freshmen should keep the team competitive in several areas.

“I think we’re pretty balanced as far as the new girls coming up,” she said. “We have more jumpers, more middle distance, some good 400-meter girls and a new thrower. It’s really exciting because we have a lot more depth now. These freshmen coming in will add a lot of strength.”

Along with the newcomers, those returning to the Owl lineup have more than enough experience and accolades to have Rice thinking about a Conference USA title. The Owls have not won a championship in either indoor or outdoor competition since 2004.

Leading the distinguished letterman are three of Rice’s five Academic All-Americans from 2006 — juniors Rachel Greff, Marissa Daniels and sprinter Desarie Walwyn. Greff took first place in last year’s C-USA outdoor championship, tying the Rice school record with a vault of 13 feet, 6.25 inches.

Daniels, who set the Rice record in the 5,000-run last season, joins a number of distance standouts. Wells took first in both the mile and the 3000-meter run in last year’s indoor championship, and senior Kate Gorry took an at-large bid in the 10,000-meter run to the 2006 NCAA national championships, where she finished 18th, four spots behind Daniels. Junior Lennie Waite, who won the 1,500-meter run in last year’s Texas Relays and had the team’s fasted time in the 800, also returns to the squad. Walwyn was seventh in the 100-meters and sixth in the 200-meters in last year’s C-USA outdoors. She and a pair of juniors — Lacee Carmon and Chandra Ewing — head up the Rice sprinters.

Senior Funmi Jimoh, the current Rice record-holder in the pentathlon and the 60-meter sprint, exhausted her indoor track eligibility last year, but she will rejoin the team for the outdoor season in late February.

“We’re a threat to score in almost every event in which we have people, and that’s not typical of a small private school,” he said. “Funmi is a threat to score in about five different events herself in the conference meet and a threat to win three, maybe four of those events.”

Rice will need that breadth of talent in order to win against a competitive C-USA slate. The University of Houston returns several runners from a 2006 squad that won both the indoor and outdoor conference titles. They include Ebonie Floyd, who finished fifth the 200-meters in last year’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

The University of Texas-El Paso also returns a number of runners from its outdoor runner-up squad — Fatimoh Muhammed and Jenny Holmroos took first and second in the 800-meters in last year’s outdoor championships, and Oludamola Osayomi took second in both the 100- and 200-meters. The University of Southern Mississippi finished fourth in last year’s outdoor championships, and although the Golden Eagles graduated Raquel Washington — last year’s top point scorer — they have a promising class of freshmen.

Bevan said although Conference USA includes a number of talented programs, the Owls’ main competition comes from the Cougars.

This year’s schedule remains predominately in and around Texas, with meets in Seattle and New Mexico highlighting Rice’s out of state competitions. The season starts today with the indoor Leonard Hilton Memorial meet, held at UH’s Yeoman Field House, which will feature 15 teams from the Texas area.

Bevan said the meet should provide the Owls with a basis for improvement.

“[It should help us] establish a base point to see where we are, and get us back into competing again” he said. “We’d like to start at our best level possible, but we just want to get started. There’s going to be a lot of improvement between our first meet and our second meet.”

Other notable competitions include the C-USA Indoor Championships, scheduled for Feb. 23-24 at the University of Houston, and the Victor Lopez Bayou Classic Mar. 30-31, which features runners from high school, college and amateur levels. After the four-team Rice Twilight meet April 26, the Owls host the C-USA outdoor championships May 10-12, the culmination of a season Bevan hopes will end in another title.

“First and foremost we would like to win our conference,” Bevan said. “Then [we want to] get as many people as possible to nationals and do as well as we can at the national meet. We have a good group across the board — we’re just hoping to improve on last year’s finishes.”

End of article

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