Hewamudalige Fifth at Pre-Nationals
10/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 15, 2005
Terre Haute, Ind. -
Rice senior Marcel Hewamudalige placed fifth in the men's "Blue" race at the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday as the Owls finished 27th as a team. The Pre-Nationals meet is annually one of the largest meets in the nation and is run over the same eight-kilometer course that will be used for the NCAA championships in November.
Hewamudalige ran with the lead pack through most of the race, passing the 5k mark in 14:57, three seconds behind eventual winner Josh Rohatinsky of BYU, and finishing in 23:50.6. Rohatinsky stopped the clock at 23:30.7, with TCU's Kip Kangogo second at 23:39.4. Stanford won the team trophy with 89 points, well ahead of runner-up BYU's 174.
"Once again, Marcel ran a very solid and competitive race," said Rice head coach Jon Warren. "It was good to see him in the lead pack through the race, but he knows he will have to get even better to make a return trip to nationals."
Sophomore transfer Charles Hampton was the Owls' second finisher, placing 116th in 25:14. Rounding out the Rice scorers were Colby Keithan, 162nd in 25:42, Pablo Solares, 175th in 25:57, and Justin Maxwell, 194th in 26:16. Senior David Axel fell victim to an ankle injury and was unable to complete the race. The Owls finished with 652 points.
Warren said, "Our other runners were not as close to Marcel as I would have liked, but this is one of the toughest races we will be in all year. Losing David (Axel) hurt us in the team scoring, but this was still a good outing overall."
The Owls return to action on Oct. 29 as they travel to Orlando, Fla., for the Conference USA championships.
Players Mentioned
