Klein, Lewis pace men's track team

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by Ben Glassman

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The men's track and field team turned in a solid performance last weekend at the Louisiana State University Purple Tiger Relays held in Baton Rouge.

The Owls came away with one first-place finish when the distance-medley relay team of freshman Derrick Small, sophomore Andrew Burrow, freshman Jaime Price and senior Jeff Lewis crossed the tape in 10:03.21.

Their closest competition in the event came from Northwestern University, which finished a full 14 seconds behind. Although the winning mark was not up to provisional qualifying standards, the team could post a better time in a stronger field.

That stronger field should be present next Saturday at the Harvard Indoor in Cambridge, Mass.

"LSU was a quality meet, but the distance-medley team can do better if we're in a faster race," Price said. "Hopefully, we'll have that opportunity at Harvard."

Lewis also took second in the mile in 4:23.39, and Burrow finished fourth in the 400 meters in 49.03. But the most impressive individual race was run by junior Brian Klein. Running the 800 for the first time this season, he was second with a time of 1:51.88.

In field events, junior Kodili Odimgbe placed sixth in the shot-put with a 51 1/4 toss, while junior Chad Kopp finished seventh in the high jump with an effort of 6-9.75. Freshman Ross Andres managed 6-4 to claim 13th in the same event. And another freshman, Drexell Owusu, captured 11th in the long jump by leaping 23-2.75.

The results were consistent with Head Coach Ray David-son's philosophy of bringing the team along slowly in the early stages in order to prepare the freshmen and peak later in the season.

The approach has certainly not been lost on the team. Price, who normally is a half-miler, said, "I ran the 1,200-meter leg of the distance medley, which is longer than I've ever run, so I'm still trying to figure out how to run that portion fast. We're in a bit of a learning phase right now."

Price ran the 800 in 1:56.81 at LSU, slightly slower than he was running the event last year in high school. But his situation and performance are shared by several others among Rice's talented freshmen.

Price said that the team's members are often running more events than they did in high school and that they understand that the much-longer collegiate season requires a runner to pace himself. "I think that I should be reaching my top form later in the season when it really counts," Price said.

The competition intensifies today and tomorrow for the Owls. Several runners are in Cambridge today for the Harvard Indoor, but they will return in order to compete as a team for tomorrow's Cougar Invitational at the University of Houston's Alumni Athletic Center.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the February 2, 1996 issue.

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