Cross Country: Rice Men Finish 31st at NCAA Championships
11/22/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
NCAA Cross Country Championships Site
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. The Rice men's cross country team finished 31st of 31 teams at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships Monday in Bloomington.
Junior Lachlan McArthur was the first Owl to cross the finish line. He finished the 10K course in 32:55.90 to place 166th among the 254 competitors. Arkansas won the 1999 Men's Cross Country team title, while South Alabama's David Kimani won the men's individual championship. Brigham Young University took home the 1999 Women's Cross Country Championship and Wisconsin's Erica Palmer was the first-place finisher in the individual results.
"We didn't have a great meet," said Rice men's cross country coach Jon Warren. "It is quite an accomplishment to get to this level. We just didn't run as well as we had all season, but this is different competition."
Rice had not advanced to the NCAA championships since 1987 when Warren was a senior on the team. The Owls finished 19th of 22 teams that year. The Owls took team victories at both the Rice and Texas A&M invitationals and claimed the WAC championship Oct. 30, the first men's conference cross country championship at Rice since 1928. Rice was second at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Invitational and was third at the regional.
