Cross country teams start strong

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by David Gordon

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The Willis Open, put on annually by the University of Houston, is a pre-season warm-up for cross-country teams in Southeast Texas.

Runners from the University of Houston, Texas A&MUniversity at Kingsville, Sam Houston State University, Rice and the University of Texas-Pan American took place in this meet to the north of Houston.

The runners did not officially represent their schools at the meet.

Fifty-three runners started the men's race, and junior Jeff Lewis destroyed the field. He claimed first place by just under 30 seconds.

Freshman Jeff Edmonds finished sixth, senior Luis Armentos finished 13th, junior Jamie de Mahy finished 23rd and senior Greg Lewis rounded out the team's top finishers at the 28th spot.

Lewis was impressed with the runners who competed from Rice.

"We didn't have a bad showing." he said. "It is a tough course, and they changed it this year."

He is also optimistic about the team's chances this season.

"It is still early in the season. We are running off of what we did this summer," he said. "We still have another two months until the conference meet, and we should be ready."

In the women's race, a runner from Texas-Pan American captured first place, but the Owls captured the next four spots.

Leading the way was senior Katy Eklof, who finished second overall. Senior Alex Gajewski took third place, freshman Kari Vigerstol turned in an impressive fourth-place finish and sophomore Sheila Madigan came in fifth.

Madigan was happy with how the team did at the meet.

"It was a good opening meet for the team," she said. "It was good because it was cooler up there than it is here, it's low key and it helped us get ready for the weekends to come."

The women's team, which captured the Southwest Conference title last year, the first women's title ever for Rice, has been thinking about defending its title since the season began.

"We're always thinking about the conference meet and who our competitors are and how they're doing," Madigan said.

"The very first day, the first thing that [Coach Jim Bevans] said was that the conference meet was in eight weeks, so it's on our minds."

The first official meet of the year takes place at Baylor University in Waco on Sept. 15, the site of the SWC Championships.

The meet is unique because it will be the first time that several of the big teams have met so early in the season. There are usually several small meets for teams to warm up against before facing any conference opponents.

However, at the Baylor meet, Baylor and the University of Texas, two of the top teams in the conference, are scheduled to run against Rice.

Lewis said, "It will be a good determining race -- to see where everyone is compared to everyone else."

A big obstacle the women's team faces this year is the graduation of last year's champion Candace Lessmeister.

The team will try to overcome this by relying on its overall depth and improvement over last year.

"Candace was a very driven, motivated person," Madigan said.

"Scoring-wise, it might affect us a little bit, but everyone has come into this season a lot stronger than they were last year. It's hard to say, but looking at the team now, I'd say that as a group we can move up and make up the slack."

Madigan believes that the team stands a good chance of defending its title.

"I don't normally like to talk about this because I'm superstitious, but I think that if everyone runs the way they're capable of running, we'll be fine," she said.

"We have a lot of talent and a good work ethic. The fact that it's at Baylor and that they're chasing us will make us work even harder."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 8, 1995 issue.

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