Men travel to Fort Worth to defend 1995 Indoor title

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by Ben Glassman

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Today and tomorrow, the men's track and field team will attempt to successfully defend their 1995 championship at this year's Southwest Conference Indoor Championships in Fort Worth.

It's a tall order for the young Owls but not an impossible one. Several of the athletes Rice will be counting on this weekend performed well last week at Oklahoma City in the Daily Oklahoman Track Classic.

Rice's best results came in the 800 meters. Freshman Derrick Small won his heat in 1:53.30, and sophomore Andrew Burrow won the race overall in 1:52.90. Brian Klein ran well but was bumped off the track.

Freshman Jaime Price ran the Owls' best mile this year in 4:15.39.

Kodili Odimgbe led the way in the field events, capturing second in the shot put with a throw of 54-8 1/2. It was his best effort this year and demonstrated improvement in the new rotational technique he has been learning. Chad Kopp placed fourth in the high jump by clearing 6-10, one of his top performances in 1996.

Everyone will need to perform at the highest level for the Owls to defend their SWC Indoor crown. They won it last year in dramatic fashion, defeating Baylor by one point when Odimgbe won the final event by one inch on his final throw of the shot.

But this year Rice brings a different, much younger team to compete against its SWC foes.

"Losing champions in the long and triple jumps makes repeating difficult," Assistant Coach Jon Warren said.

However, it may not be impossible. Rice coaches have scored the meet hypothetically and think that 80-90 points are within the Owls' grasp.

"That may be just enough to win it," Warren said. "Probably the best word to describe the Southwest Conference this year is `parity.'"

That means that Rice will be among several teams with a chance to win. The University of Texas, as usual, will be strong, as will Texas A&M University. The University of Houston brings its best team in recent years, and Baylor University, like Rice, is strong in spots.

Rice's primary strength this year is in middle distance.

Klein is expected to contend vigorously for the 800-meter championship. He has already qualified provisionally for the NCAAs in that event. The Owls will hope that the 800 meters in Fort Worth resembles the race run in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 3, when Klein took the race only by staving off the hard-charging Price, who took second.

Dan Brooks represents a potential boost in the event as well, according to Warren. He has run in the area of 1:54, and any points he could score here would be a welcome bonus.

Sophomore Andrew Burrow will try to defend his 1995 600-yard championship, and he will hopefully be competing for first place with freshman Derrick Small, who owns Rice's top time this year in the event.

Burrow's victory last year came in a school-record time of 1:10.54, and he will probably have to improve on that for the victory in what should be a blazing field.

Quinton Milner will compete against Baylor's legion of quarter- milers in the 400 meters, and Rice's 4x400-meter relay team should also be among the top two or three in the conference.

In order to give the team its best chance for maximum points by balancing events, Rice's top mile relay team will compete, but the distance medley team will not be the one that qualified provisionally in Cambridge.

"It's more advantageous to have those people fresh for their individual events," Warren said.

Warren also thinks that freshman Drexell Owusu can score points in both the triple and long jumps, especially the former.

Odimgbe will need another remarkable effort to retain his championship. "Right now, I'm mainly thinking about qualifying [for the NCAAs]," he said. "And if I can qualify automatically, that would win the event. It's a very deep field. SMU's top two throwers are back, and UH has a great freshman.

"But Coach Davidson has stressed that if people concentrate on qualifying in their individual events, that will bring the best results for the team as well."

Luis Armenteros has emerged as a favorite in the 3000 meters, improving his personal best.

"That time is not an one-time occurrence," Warren said. "We feel that's about where he's running consistently now."

Adam Reiser said, "If someone had said last summer that Luis would be a conference favorite in the 3,000, it would have been a joke. Luis is the man right now. How he's improved is just amazing."

Reiser will run in the 5,000 meters.

Although Chad Kopp can score important points in the high jump, the Owls will miss the efforts of Jeff Pope. Pope's 7-1 clearance last year earned crucial points, but he is spending the season with the varsity basketball team, having exhausted his indoor eligibility.

Rice will also be without the services of Jeff Lewis, who has suffered a stress fracture. He had been expected to contend in the mile.

Even if Rice is unable to repeat as SWC Indoor champions, and the prevailing sentiment on the team is that a third- or fourth-place finish is more realistic, many feel that the competition will be at least as rewarding.

"Last year we went into this meet with a totally different attitude," Reiser said, "We were so stacked with talent that we expected to win, and all anyone talked about was exactly how many points were going to be scored. This year we're running for all the right reasons: to do well individually and to cheer on our teammates."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the February 16, 1996 issue.

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