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January 26, 2007 > Sports > Solares wins mile at Houston

Solares wins mile at Houston

By Stephen Whitfield | Thresher Editorial Staff

The season is only two weeks old, but the men’s track and field team already has a provisional qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships. Senior Pablo Solares ran the mile in 4 minutes, 3.85 seconds at the Leonard Hilton Memorial Friday, the third-fastest time in Rice history only behind two-time indoor All-American Gawain Guy (Jones ‘86) and current head coach Jon Warren (Jones ‘88). Despite a slow start, Solares reached the front of the pack by the half-mile mark and won by nearly four seconds.

“I thought it was around where I’m supposed to be,” Solares said. “I know we haven’t done a lot of trial workouts, but I have a good pace from cross country [in the fall] and I’ve been running healthy, so that’s pretty much around where I wanted to be. I knew [the field] was going to be fast [and] it worked out that way.”

With the win, Solares provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 10-11, but since he finished just short of the automatic mark of 3:59.8, he is not guaranteed of a spot. If enough runners reach the automatic time to fill the NCAA field and Solares does not, then he will not make it. However, Warren and the coaching staff hope that Solares can become the second runner in Rice history to break the four-minute mile by the end of the indoor season. That feat would remove all doubt as to his position in the NCAA field, and after starting the season on such a strong note, it does not seem out of the question. But Solares said he prefers not to focus on the four-minute mark.

“I don’t like having time goals,” he said. “There’s definitely a chance I could break the four-minute mile. Everything depends on whether I’m in the right race and in the right position. I’m just trying to run as fast as I can. … It’s just more about how I’m feeling that day.”

The Owls finished third at the Hilton Memorial, held at the Yeoman Fieldhouse on the University of Houston campus, with 54.5 points, 42.5 points behind first-place UH. The University of Texas finished second with 74 points. With every team still getting into prime racing shape, though, point totals are not as important at this point in the season. Warren said the team will not focus on winning meets and securing great times for at least another three weeks, when the Owls will head to the Washington Invitational in Seattle Feb. 10.

“The first week we’re really going to line up and crank is when we go to Seattle, so we’re trying to train towards that, get ready and then go to conference,” Warren said.

Rice is off this week but will return to competition Feb. 3 for the Houston Invitational, which will also be held at Yeoman Fieldhouse. Solares said the team will approach this meet the same way as the last.

“We won’t try to change too much focusing on the next meet because it really isn’t that big, either,” he said. “I think most of us are going to run a 3k, and hopefully it’ll work out well.”

Solares was not the only Owl to win his event at the Hilton Memorial. Sophomore Justin Maxwell ran 15:21.62 to win the 5,000 meters. Freshman Brad Morris finished fourth in the same event, nearly seven seconds behind Maxwell. Freshman Simon Bucknell also ran the mile, finishing seventh with a time of 4:22.83. Another seventh-place finisher, sophomore Bubba Heard, ran the 200 meters in 22.45 seconds. Junior Omar Wright, an NCAA outdoor finalist in the high jump last year, placed fourth in the high jump, clearing six feet, eight inches.

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