Saturday, November 1
Denton, Texas
9:00 AM
Rice University
vs
C-USA Championship
Roper Claims C-USA Championships Title
11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 1, 2014
Full Results
DENTON, Texas - Rice sophomore Cali Roper won the Conference USA Cross Country Championships individual title Saturday morning, becoming the first Owl in school history to finish first at a C-USA title race.
DENTON, Texas - Rice sophomore Cali Roper won the Conference USA Cross Country Championships individual title Saturday morning, becoming the first Owl in school history to finish first at a C-USA title race.
Roper helped lead the Owls (62 points) to a second place finish as a team, second to only champion Middle Tennessee (55 points).
A native of Willis, Texas, Roper won the 5K race on the campus of North Texas by finishing with a time of 16:43, nearly seven full seconds ahead of Middle Tennessee's Hannah Maina. Roper's time tied for the fourth-best mark in C-USA Championships history in a 5K race. The victory by Roper was her fourth individual victory this season and she joined former Owl Kate Gorry (2004-WAC) as the only athletes in school history to win an individual title.
Joining Roper for First-Team All-Conference honors were Rice sophomore Katie Jensen (5th-16:59) and freshman Madi McLellan (6th-17:08). It marked the first time since 2008 (Nicole Mericle, Lennie Waite, Allison Pye) that the Owls had three runners in the top seven.
"We ran the best race we've ran all year," Rice head coach Jim Bevan said. "Unfortunately we got beat by a team in Middle Tennessee that ran their best of the year as well. I'm very happy with the way we competed. Our girls were running 40 seconds to a minute faster than they did at this course five weeks ago. That's the closest we've been 1-5 all year. Cali got challenged late but closed strong and had a big time performance, the best of her life. Katie Jensen was terrific breaking 17 minutes and Madi McLellan finished sixth as a freshman. Eleanor Wardleworth ran her best race at Rice as did Allie Schaich. Obviously we would have liked to win conference but finishing to a team like Middle Tennessee is nothing to hang our head about."
Other finishers for the Owls were sophomore Eleanor Wardleworth (24th-17:57), freshman Elsa Racasan (26th-18:00), freshman Ellen Diemert (29th-18:11), senior Allie Schaich (32nd-18:14), sophomore Hannah Kay (37th-18:23) and junior Audrey Wassef (50th-18:48).
The Owls will now have two weeks to prepare for the NCAA South Central Regional, which will be held in Fayetteville, Ark. on Nov. 14 at 12 p.m. (CT).
-RiceOwls.com-
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
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