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January 26, 2007 > Sports > Women’s track second at Leonard Hilton Memorial

Women’s track second at Leonard Hilton Memorial

By Dylan Farmer | Thresher Editorial Staff

Led by Eunique Hamilton’s first-place triple jump, the freshman class stole the limelight for the women’s track and field team at the Leonard Hilton Memorial indoor meet Friday. Rice finished second ahead of host University of Houston. The University of Texas accumulated 134 points to win the 15-team competition, and Rice finished with 91.5.

The Owls next compete at the Houston Invitational Feb. 3, also held at UH’s Yeoman Fieldhouse. Along with the host Cougars, Texas will probably participate again, and last year’s field included Baylor University, the University of Texas-San Antonio and Conference USA foe University of Southern Mississippi. UH’s Ebonie Floyd, the reigning C-USA 200-meter champion, will run after resting during last week’s meet.

Head coach Jim Bevan said Rice will face higher-caliber teams than those at the Leonard Hilton Memorial, but he believes the Owls need the challenge in order to get in contention for the C-USA indoor title.

“The competition will be a little tougher,” Bevan said. “But you can only train so much — we’re looking forward to actually competing, [so] by the second meet in February we should be ready to go for conference.”

Last Friday, Rice showed unexpected depth with its freshmen class. First-year runners scored six of Rice’s individual top-eight performance, and played key roles in both the 4x400-meter and distance medley relays. Hamilton led the way with her 39 foot, 3.75 inch triple jump — a distance more than a foot shorter than her winning jump from last year’s Texas 5-A state championship. Fellow freshman Nicole Mericle anchored the first-place distance medley relay, overcoming a four-second deficit on her leg to secure the win. Brittany Washington took sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.68, and she anchored the third-place 4x400 meter relay team. Shakera Reece tied Rice sophomore Desarie Walwyn for fourth in the 60-meters, recording a time of 7.60 seconds.

Bevan said he was impressed with the freshman numbers.

“I was very happy with the way our freshmen competed,” he said. “They’re going to have a huge impact on this team.”

Rice’s returning athletes also scored well, especially sophomore Chandra Ewing, whose second place 57.22 in the 400-meters was also a personal indoor best. Sophomore Naquanza Alfred ran a 2:15.83 in the 800, finishing just one one-hundredth of a second behind the Longhorns’ Janine Davis. Sophomore Lennie Waite took fifth with a 5:05.30 mile. Competing without a personal coach, junior Rachel Greff took third place in the pole vault — her 11 feet, 11.75 inch effort was well short of her personal best but good enough to medal.

Senior Kate Gorry caused momentary concern when she fell to the ground after getting bumped in the first 800 meters of her 5,000-meter run. Visibly short of breath, she never quite recovered but managed to pass several runners before finishing in sixth place with a time of 18:12.02.

“I was impressed with where we started,” Bevan said. “We started ahead of where we were in most areas last year. Now we’re just hoping to get better across the board.”

Junior Marissa Daniels, last year’s 5,000-meter indoor champion, did not compete because of a minor hamstring injury, but Bevan said she should recover fully before the next meet.

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