Women’s track leaps to victory at UH meet
The women’s track and field team reached new heights, both literally and figuratively last Friday as senior Rachel Greff’s provisional qualifying win in the pole vault led the Owls to a first-place win in the Leonard Hilton Memorial at the University of Houston’s Yeoman Field House. Rice’s score of 127 points bested the other thirteen competitors, including second-place Sam Houston State University’s 95 points and cross-town rival UH’s 91.5 points.
The Owls now get a well-deserved two-week break before they run in the University of Houston Invitational, where they will again compete against thirteen schools, including a full UH squad and the University of Texas currently ranked 11th in the nation.
Head coach Jim Bevan said he sees the challenge as a good opportunity for his team to prepare itself for meets later in the season.
“We’re just trying to get fitter and get a little sharper and get a little more technically refined in our field events,” he said. “In order to finish things out, you need meets.”
Greff, a former Conference USA indoor champion in the pole vault, led the way at the UH meet with her winning vault of 3.95 meters. Fellow seniors Desarie Walwyn and Lennie Waite started the season off well. Walwyn’s third-place time of 7.55 seconds in the 60-meter dash was a career best for her. Waite also had a career-best finish in the mile, placing second with a time of 4 minutes, 51.02 seconds. But Waite was not the only impressive finisher in the mile, as senior Callie Wells, junior Claire Shorall and sophomore Nicole Mericle placed third, fifth and sixth, respectively. Additionally, two-event competitor senior Lacee Carmon placed in both of her events, finishing second in the long jump and third in the 60-meter hurdles.
The underclassmen contributed to the team win as well. Sophomore transfer Sarah Lyons’ time of 25:09 won the 200-meter dash and freshman Allison Pye’s 17:16.95 captured a win in the 5,000.
The Owls also performed especially well in the relays, taking first in both the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:52.05 and in the distance relay with a time of 12:05.49.
Other top finishes included sophomore Eunique Hamilton’s third-place in the high jump and sophomore Brittany Washington’s fourth-place in the 400.
The impressive performances across the board were no surprise to Bevan, who said he was just happy to see his team finally get into the swing of competition.
“You’re never sure completely where you’re at until you start competing, because competition’s so different from practice,” Bevan said. “But I was very happy with how we started and how many good performances we had at the beginning of the season.”
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