Rice University
C-USA Championships
WXC: Owls Turn In Third Place Performance at C-USA Championships
10/27/2018 9:18:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Four Owls earn all-conference honors
BOCA RATON, FL - The Rice Owls women's cross country team placed third overall at Saturday's Conference USA Championships, hosted by Florida Atlantic at the Burt Aaron South County Regional Park course.
The Owls finished third for a second straight year at the C-USA Championships and in the top three overall for a fifth straight season. UTEP won the league title with 44 points, followed by Middle Tennessee at 48 points for second place.
Rice was led by sophomore Lourdes Vivas de Lorenzi (8th-17:17) and junior Khayla Patel (11th-17:36), each earning Second Team All-Conference honors, as did freshman Ryann Helmers (12th-17:37). Freshman Ashley Messineo climbed the standings late in the race to placed 17th overall (17:56), garnering Third Team All-Conference honors in her first C-USA competition. Also scoring for the Owls was sophomore Mary Claire Neal, who placed 26th overall (18:22).
The rest of the Owls finished in this order: freshman Caitlin Wosika (27th-18:25), freshman Alyssa Balandran (40th-18:42) and sophomore Natalie Goddard (50th-18:59).
"We had our best race of the yer today," Rice head coach Jim Bevan said. "It was the tightest our team has been 1 to 5 split. Mary Claire and Caitlin improved a bunch, as did Ashley. UTEP ran a new fifth runner they haven't run all year and that made the difference for them. Both UTEP and Middle Tennessee were at a different level today, but I was extremely proud of our performances. Lourdes, Khayla, and Ryann were also outstanding and I'm so happy we have our entire team back for next year. This was a much better conference meet than last year so now we know where the target is for the future. We have an awesome freshmen base for our future with Khayla as our only upperclassman."
Next up for the Owls is the NCAA South Central Regional, which will be held Nov. 10 in College Station hosted by Texas A&M.That race is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m.
Players Mentioned
