Owls Set Sites on NCAA Championships
11/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 18, 2007
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Rice Notes
The 2007 NCAA South Central Regional and Conference USA champion and 11th-ranked Rice women's cross country team will vie for it's best finish ever when the Owls run on Monday at the NCAA championships in Terre Haute, Ind. The championship action begins at 11:08 am (CST) with the men's race. The women's race is slated to start at 11:58 am (CST). For the first time in NCAA history, the meet will be broadcast live on CSTV.
Day of History
On Nov. 10 in Fayetteville, Ark., the Owls made school history by winning the NCAA South Central Regional Championships with 54 points. The victory also marked the Rice women's cross country team's first win against Arkansas. Of particular note, the Owls' win came with their top runner of the season, senior Marissa Daniels not even scoring while running with leg cramps. Prior to the win, Rice's best team finish was second in 1993.
All-Region
Rice had six Owls named to the NCAA South Central All-Region Team, the most of any team in the region and all hail from Texas, including four from the Houston area. In order of finish at the race, they are: freshman Allison Pye (Cypress Creek HS), sophomore Nicole Mericle (John Cooper School), freshman Becky Wade (Dallas) and seniors Callie Wells (The Woodlands HS), Lennie Waite (Austin), and Marissa Daniels (Pearland HS).
Conference Record
On the way to their second Conference USA team title in three years, the Owls set a league record by scoring 26 points. Daniels, Pye and Wade earned first-team all-conference honors while Wells, Mericle and Waite were named to the second team. Rice missed the title in 2006 by a single point.
Shrinking The Gap
Through the course of the season, the Rice harriers have been running better and better as team as the margin of time between the first Owl and the fifth Owl to cross the line has been ever shrinking.
Elapsed Time Between 1st & 5th Owls (By Meet)
9/21 TAMU Invitational, 74 seconds
9/28 Notre Dame Invitational, 44 seconds
10/13 Pre Nationals, 41 seconds
10/27 C-USA Championships, 36 seconds
11/10 NCAA Regionals, 32 seconds
In the Rankings
With their stunning victory over eight-ranked teams at the Notre Dame Invitational, then unranked Rice vaulted to No. 7 in the national poll, a position held for two weeks. The Owls slipped to No. 16 after their seventh-place finish in the Blue Race at Pre Nationals. Heading into the national championships, Rice climbed back to No. 11.
Rice at the NCAA Meet
Since beginning competition in NCAA Division I in 1984, Rice has fielded a team at the NCAA Championships just three times prior to Monday's race, including just two years ago. The 2005 squad received an at-large bid and placed 25th out of 31 teams and ended an 11-year drought. The 1993 was 19th out of 22 and the 1987 team was 15th out of 16.
In the previous 23 years, nine Owls have made 10 individual appearances at the national meet. Former great Pam Klassen recorded Rice's best individual performances, taking 25th in her first meet in 1985, then improving to 11th in 1986. Current Owl Marissa Daniels earned the most recent individual bid and finished 53rd in 2004 as a freshman.
Bevan Honored... Again
Rice head coach Jim Bevan began the season by receiving the Conference USA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Coaches Choice Award winner for 2006-07. The award recognizes a coach that is committed to fostering student-athlete development and welfare through a positive athletic and academic atmosphere. Each C-USA institution selects a nominee and then voting is done by the conference SAAC representatives during its annual in-person meeting. In October, he was named the C-USA coach of the year, then in November he received his first NCAA South Central Regional coach of the year award.
Players Mentioned
