Men's cross country settles for seventh

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by John Burant

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Rice needed to place second in the team standings to qualify for nationals.

The Owls ran an "all or nothing" race according to sophomore team captain Bryce Cramer. They ended up with the latter.

"We had to take a chance," said Head Coach Steve Straub.

The Owls' strategy for the race was to place runners in good positions midway through the race with the idea that the they would hold their positions to the finish.

Three miles into the 6.2-mile race, Rice's sixth man was running in 27th place. After that, things fell apart.

"We weren't strong enough to hold on to the lead," Cramer said.

By the end of the race, the majority of the Rice squad had fallen back to the middle of the field.

"We couldn't race the middle part of the race," said freshman Jason Lunn.

Lunn managed to hold on to his spot, though, as he led the Owls with an 11th-place finish in 32:35. He was three places away from qualifying individually for the national championships.

Freshman Adam Reiser was the second Rice finisher with 45th place in 33:36. Other Rice runners included junior Richard Toves, 46th in 33:37, freshman Brian Klein, 51st in 33:52 and sophomore Luis Armenteros, 58th in 34:13.

Rice's point total of 190 equaled Texas Tech University's score. The University of Arkansas, who won with 25 points, and the University of Texas, who finished second with 74, advanced to nationals.

Straub said he sees the race and the whole season as a learning process.

"We grew up and gained another step," he said. "The conference wasn't as weak as we thought it was going to be. Cross country has really improved in our region."

Straub plans to focus on developing the Owl squad in the future rather than worrying about the other teams.

"I'm concerned with what we have here, not other people's squads," he said. "If we can [fulfill our potential], we will be one of the top two teams in the region."

by John Burant

This item appeared in the Sports section of the November 19, 1993 issue.

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