Cross Country Teams to Compete at NCAA South Central Regional
11/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
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HOUSTON - The Rice Owls cross country teams will begin NCAA Championship competition at the South Central Regional, hosted by Texas A&M, on Friday morning.
Texas A&M's brand-new Watts Cross Country Course will host this year's event. The women's 6k begins at 10 a.m., while the men's 10k begins at 11 a.m. The top two teams and the first four finishers in the race not associated with those two teams will advance to the NCAA Championships, held Nov. 21 in Louisville. Thirteen teams will also earn at-large bids to be announced on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The Rice women are coming off a first-place showing at the Conference USA Championships two weeks ago, the team's fourth C-USA title in school history. Rice junior Cali Roper won her second consecutive C-USA individual title with a winning time of 17:22.6 in the 5K race, becoming the first C-USA athlete to win back-to-back titles since UTEP's Risper Kimaiyo in 2009-10.
Roper's junior teammate Katie Jensen moved from eighth place in the middle of the race to second overall (17:35.5) to earn C-USA First-Team honors for a second straight season. Sophomore Elsa Racasan improved 17 spots from last year's championships to place 10th overall and earn Second-Team honors. Junior Hannah Kay (16th-18:22.5) and freshman Abigail Cartwright (19th-18:26.4) also placed in the top 20 to claim Third-Team All-Conference recognition.
The five all-conference performances were the most by an Owls team since they had five at the 2010 C-USA Championships.
Last season the women placed fifth overall (147 points) at the NCAA South Central Regionals and Roper placed fifth individually, to earn a spot at the NCAA Championships.
The Rice men are coming off a fourth-place finish at the Conference USA Championships. Senior Will Firth earned Second-Team All-Conference honors with an eighth place finish while sophomore Brad Dohner (15th) and Marco Ruiz (16th) also earned all-conference honors.
Last season the Owls placed 10th at the NCAA South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., led by a 29th-place finish from Firth.
Players Mentioned
