Owls Beat the Heat, Win Rice Invitational meet
9/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 17, 2005
Houston -
Senior Marcel Hewamudalige made a strong move over the final mile to place second individually and lead the Rice Owls to the men's team title at the Rice Invitational Saturday. Temperatures during the meet were in the 90s, with humidity near 100%.
Hewamudalige, who represented Canada at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March, covered the 5,675-meter course in 17:05.64, with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Shadrack Songok winning in 16:52.19. Rice scored 37 points, eight ahead of runners-up Texas-Pan American.
"It was uncomfortably hot and humid out here today," said Rice head coach Jon Warren. "But our guys handled the conditions well and we had a very solid team race. We are in the middle of a hard training cycle, so this is a good day and a good result."
Sophomore Charles Hampton, who transferred from Texas, was the Owls' second finisher in fourth place, while David Axel (eighth), Colby Keithan (10th), Pablo Solares (13th) rounded out the Rice scorers. Justin Maxwell, an Owl freshman, ran unattached and placed tenth overall.
In the boys' big school varsity two-mile race, Fort Bend Austin's Sam Hulse led from start to finish to win in 10:29.45, four seconds ahead of Houston Lamar's Julius Michael. Clear lake won the team title with 72 points, six points better than second-placers Pearland.
Channelview won the small school varsity race with 47 points, paced by individual champ Roland DeJean. DeJean clocked 11:04.67 to win by more than six seconds.
Rice's next outing is Sept. 30, as the team travels to Corpus Christi for the Islander Splash Opener.
Players Mentioned
