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October 26, 2007 > Sports > Women’s cross heads to C-USA title meet as favorites

Women’s cross heads to C-USA title meet as favorites

By Justin Hudson | Thresher staff

Coming off their stunning victory at the Notre Dame Invitational, the women’s cross country team once again took control at a major national invitational, finishing seventh at the Pre-Nationals Meet on Oct. 13 in Terre Haute, Ind. The Owls competed against 38 other teams, including 11 ranked squads, in the six-kilometer race.

Rice is the lone ranked team going into the C-USA Cross Country championships tomorrow in El Paso, Texas. In addition to being the favorites, the Owls are motivated by their narrow defeat at last year’s conference meet to the University of Alabama-Birmingham. This year, senior Marissa Daniels said she and the rest of the upperclassmen seek to reconcile the disappointing loss.

“We’re definitely kind of out for revenge,” Daniels, the individual runner-up at last year’s meet, said. “[The loss] was really bitter last year. … This year, I think we are a lot stronger and we just really want to go out there and dominate.”

The Owls seem to be peaking at the right time of the year. The C-USA meet will be the first of a series of championship meets that will hopefully culminate in an appearance in the NCAA Championships Nov. 19. Though expecting tough competition from the University of Tulsa and UAB, head coach Jim Bevan said he believes his team will be focused enough to avoid any letdowns.

“I’m confident that our young ladies will lay it on the line and I’m confident that we’re fit,” Bevan said. “They are hungry and they want to win.”

Rice’s performance in Notre Dame allowed Bevan to be more conservative in his training regimen leading up to Pre-Nationals. Traditionally, coaches of unranked or teams cut back on their runners’ miles in hopes of a strong performance at Pre-Nationals to qualify their team for the national meet.

But instead of tapering off the Owls’ miles, Bevan was able to maintain the Owls’ regular routine and used the race more as a preview of the national meet.

“[Pre-Nationals] is to try to get points to later on qualify for nationals,” Bevan said. “We got so many points at Notre Dame that we were in good shape. We got a good race, but we also did not get a break in training.”

Unlike the Notre Dame meet, where the Owls started the race conservatively and moved up in position throughout the race, Rice ran out with the front pack at Pre-Nationals. Rice runners maintained the close proximity that has been the hallmark of the team’s recent success.

Daniels again finished first among Owls and 17th overall with her time of 20 minutes, 46 seconds. The gap between Daniels and the rest of the team continued to shrink, with every other Owl ending within a minute and three seconds of the lead.

Rice faced stiff competition at Pre-Nationals. The nation’s top-ranked team, Stanford University, won the race with 102 points. Eleventh-ranked Florida State University finished second with 123 points, while four other ranked teams would edge the Owls.

Rice finished seventh with 224 points, dropping from seventh to 16th in the cross country coaches’ poll.

Bevan said he was particularly happy with the Owls’ performance, especially after their fast start.

“It’s different when you come in as a marked team versus coming in as an underdog team,” Bevan said. “We’re a marked team now, but [our performance at Pre-Nationals] proves we’re good.”

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