Owls Set to Host 40th Annual Rice Invitational
9/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
HOUSTON - Rice cross country launches the start of their 2015 season this weekend when they host the 40th annual Rice Invitational Meet on Friday, Sept. 11 at the Rice Intramural Fields. The women's race begins at 6:15 p.m., followed by the men at approximately 6:45 p.m.
The Rice men's team, who placed fourth at last year's C-USA Championships, returns 10 runners for the 2015 campaign. Among those returning is senior Will Firth, who placed sixth at the C-USA Championships in 2014 to earn First-Team All-Conference honors.
The men's race features six of the top 15 teams from the USTFCCCA South Central Region Preseason Poll, which includes Lamar (4), McNeese State (8), Rice (9), Houston (10), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13) and Louisiana-Lafayette (14). Rounding out the men's field is Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, Prairie View A&M, Texas A&M International, Texas Southern, Texas State and UT-Rio Grande Valley.
Ranked sixth in the USTFCCA South Central Poll, the Rice women will be joined on Saturday by 11 other schools, including No. 8 regionally ranked Lamar. The Owls are coming off a second-place finish at the C-USA Championships in 2014 and return 18 runners, which includes the reigning individual conference champion Cali Roper. The junior from Willis, Texas won the C-USA Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year in 2014 and later placed 47th at the NCAA Championships.
Admission for Friday's meet is free, as is parking located in West Lot 4.
-RiceOwls.com-
Players Mentioned
