Women's cross country dominates home meet; 7 runners finish in top 9

by Alex Chapman

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Domination was the result of the Rice Invitational, with seven of the meet's top nine runners representing Rice.

Junior Alex Gajewski picked up her first career victory, finishing the two-mile race in a time of 11:19.

Senior Stacy Swank finished third, junior Katy Eklof finished fourth, freshman Shaquandra Roberson finished fifth and freshman Kari Vigerstol finished seventh.

Running for Rice but not officially scored in the team total were Sheila Madigan, who finished eighth, Heather Howard, who finished ninth, and Rebecca Nugent, who finished 40th in the field of 55 runners.

Coach Jim Bevans was happy with the result.

"I think we ran well as a team Saturday," he said.

"Our five scoring runners finished within 28 seconds of each other, and our top seven runners finished within 32 seconds of each other."

Asked about the importance of the meet, he said, "This was the first meet we put an emphasis on. I challenged the girls before the run, and they responded well. To win at Rice is always special. It's a shame this was our only meet here this year."

Gajewski was also happy after her win.

"It's always really nice to do well, and I felt it was important to run strong after two disappointing races earlier this year," she said. "The whole team ran very well."

Also competing in the race, in descending order of finish, were McNeese State University, Louisiana State University, Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M University, Lamar University and Texas Southern University.

The team takes a week off before competing in the North Texas Invitational.

Bevans is already looking ahead to the meet.

"The North Texas Invitational is important because it is our first five- kilometer run of the year," he said.

"We need to work on running together in a tight pack. It should be a good learning experience for our freshmen."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 29, 1995 issue.

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