Rice University Athletics
Rice University
NCAA South Central Regional Championships
Cartwright, Jensen Advance to NCAA Championships
11/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
FULL RESULTS
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Rice senior Katie Jensen and redshirt sophomore Abigail Cartwright each earned their first career NCAA Championship berth by placing seventh and eighth, respectively, at Friday's NCAA South Central Regional Championship 6K race hosted by Arkansas.
As a team the Owls placed third overall (93 points) while No. 7 Arkansas won the team title (48 points) and No. 25 Baylor placed second (62 points). The third place finish by the Owls was the team's highest since a second place finish in 2010.
Although the Owls didn't earn one of the top two automatic qualifying spots, the team will await to see if they earn an at-large bid on Saturday.
Jensen and Cartwright qualified for the NCAA's by both being one of the top four finishers not associated with either of the top two qualifying teams (Arkansas, Baylor). It would mark the first time in Rice history the Owls send two individual runners to the NCAA Championship should the entire team not get selected to participate.
Jensen, from The Woodlands, ran her third-fastest 6K of the season with a time of 20:38. Cartwright, a native of Dallas, crossed the finish line in a time of 20:44. Also earning NCAA All-Regional honors for placing in the top 25 was senior Cali Roper (10th-20:49) and junior Elsa Racasan (24th-21:21).
Other Owl competitors were freshman Khayla Patel (44th-22:00), senior Hannah Kay (50th-22:13) and sophomore Anna Figueroa (79th-23:13).
"I'm happy with our effort today, we ran our best race of the year in the middle of November and that's what you want," Rice women's cross country coach Jim Bevan said. "I wish we could have beaten Baylor today, but they were on. We did beat No. 29 AAC champion SMU and Texas. Katie put together her finest race of her Rice career and Abigail moved up 35 places from last year and battled back courageously from injury. I've never been as proud of Cali as I was today. She's battled little things all year and has never given up and led our team to two conference titles and our highest finish at regionals in years. Elsa ran her fastest 6K of her career and Khayla ran well as our only freshman and fifth runner. We've got a chance to qualify tomorrow; we'll have to sit and cross our fingers and should know something tomorrow afternoon. This is one of the best teams we've had in many years, I'm so proud of them."
The NCAA National Championships will take place next Saturday, Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind.
-RiceOwls.com-
