Women's cross country wins its second meet of season at N. Texas Invitational
"The key to this meet was our new strategy," junior Katy Eklof said.
"We attempted to run an even split time -- we figured out how fast we wanted to finish the race and finished the first of the three miles in about a third of the time. By the end of the first mile, Rice was probably in last place, but we came back."
Eklof thought that the team victory would lead to the strategy being used again this season.
"The success of the strategy probably means that we'll attempt it again in the future," she said.
"We have a much younger team than our chief competitors for the Southwest Conference title, so running conservatively could help us compensate for that fact."
Assistant track and field coach Jim Bevans praised the team's performance.
"Our ladies performed exceptionally well," he said. "We did as well as we could have hoped for. We dominated the field."
Rice, which is currently the fourth-ranked team in the district in which they compete (IV), placed all eight of its competing runners within the top 23.
The total field included 76 women.
Senior Stacy Swank led the Owls with a second-place finish, 11 seconds behind Frida Rosenberg of the University of Texas.
Eklof finished fourth for the Owls, junior Alex Gajewski finished sixth, freshman Shaquandra Roberson finished ninth and sophomore Sheila Madigan finished 12th.
Also running but not included in the official scoring were freshmen Kari Vigerstol (17th), Heather Howard (19th) and sophomore Alexis Smith (23rd).
Eklof, one of the team's veteran leaders who is attempting to come back from an injury, was pleased with her progress.
"We last ran this course two years ago, which was probably my best cross country season," she said. "I ran 16 seconds faster Friday than I did then."
In order of descending finish behind the Owls were the University of Texas, the University of North Texas, the University of Oklahoma, Weber State University, Steven F. Austin University, the University of Houston, Louisiana State University and Texas Christian University.
The next meet represents the Owls' biggest challenge of the season.
At the Penn State Invitational, the Owls will face several strong teams.
"It's a loaded field as three of the top-25 (teams) will be there," Bevans said. "Seven or eight of the best teams will also be there. If we could finish in the middle of the field, it could help us get to Nationals later in the season."
This item appeared in the Sports section of the October 13, 1995 issue.
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