Women's track and field goes for SWC Indoor title
The women's track and field team heads into the Southwest Conference Indoor Championships this weekend after recording some of their best times of the season at the Carle/Busey Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois.
The Owls should compete with the University of Texas and Baylor University for the conference title. Last year, the team placed second to Texas and ahead of Baylor. Texas has won the competition each of the past 11 years.
Two weeks ago, the team defeated Texas at the Cougar Indoor Invitational. They have yet to face Baylor this year.
"Our expectations are high since we are going to give every bit of our blood to try to win," Head Coach Victor Lopez said. "Texas could be beat this year, and we hope to do it. We need to perform great, and we need Texas to have some bad breaks."
Junior TaNisha Mills agrees. "We have a chance to win the meet. We are going to give Texas and Baylor a run for their money," she said.
The meet in Illinois was not scored, but it gave the Owls some good competition to run against going into the SWC Championships. Several well-known collegiate teams were there as well as several Olympic-level runners.
"It was good to compete against Olympic-caliber athletes," Lopez said. "It is good to face this type of competition because the college athletes benefit from it."
Both relay teams recorded their best times so far this season. The 4x400-meter relay team of Mills, senior Vonda Newhouse, junior Andrea Blackett and junior Melissa Straker ran a 3:42.26 to finish first in the event.
The time met the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
This team finished seventh in the country at last year's NCAA Indoor meet.
Senior Holly Welch, Mills, sophomore Alexis Smith and freshman Shaquandra Roberson finished fourth in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:49.09. The three teams that placed ahead of them all had provisional qualifying times.
Straker also ran individually in the 400. Her season best time of 55.72 earned her second place.
A trio of runners competed in the 800. Roberson recorded a personal record with a 2:11.22, earning third place and improving almost seven seconds from her last 800 run.
Welch and Smith followed in 10th and 12th place, respectively.
Senior Stacy Swank, senior Katy Eklof and sophomore Sheila Madigan competed in the 3,000 for the Owls.
Swank led the trio with a 9:57.26 and a fifth-place finish. Eklof followed with a seventh-place 9:59.28. Madigan recorded a 17th-place 10:19.90.
Two Owls ran the mile. Freshman Kari Vigerstol ran an eighth-place 5:03.06. Junior Alex Gajewski recorded 5:25.53 to capture 16th place.
Blackett set a personal best in the 55 hurdles, recording a time of 8.10 and a sixth-place finish.
The distance runners concentrated on one particular event instead of running in two as they had done earlier this season.
"It was a chance to get good competition and improve our times," Vigerstol said. "Concentrating on just one race helps us to get a good time."
Mills and senior Dionne Wright competed in the 60 meters. Wright placed seventh in the finals of the event. In the preliminary heats, Mills had trouble with her start and could not recover.
"My block slipped from under me, and I had to play catch-up," she said. "The official was supposed to call the race back, but he didn't."
Wright also ran in the 200 with Newhouse. Both set their best times this season with a 25.22 and 24.95, respectively.
Junior Trisha Harris claimed eighth in the shot put with a season-best mark of 13.04 meters.
Junior Rosita Hogan finished seventh in the triple jump with a mark of 11.29 meters.
Junior Cherita Howard took fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.74 meters, and freshman Chaundra Frank earned 10th in the high jump with a mark of 1.66 meters.
This item appeared in the Sports section of the February 16, 1996 issue.
Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights
Reserved.
This document may be distributed
electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety
and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted
without the express written permission of:
The Rice
Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@rice.edu