Men fall short in bid to defend SWC Indoor Title
The men's track and field team entered the 1996 Southwest Conference Indoor Championship last weekend with only a slight hope of successfully defending their 1995 title. They emerged with 50 points and a sixth-place finish, far behind the 107 points of champion Baylor University.
But impressive performances in the 600-yard and 800-meter dashes punctuated the meet for the Owls.
"From the beginning of the season, I never felt that we had a chance to defend our title," sophomore Andrew Burrow said.
"We're simply lacking the depth we had last year, so I think we did pretty well overall."
Burrow himself was a major reason this year's competition can be labeled successful.
The 1995 600-yard champion was among the favorites going into the race this year.
Among the competition was freshman teammate Derrick Small. Both cruised to first-place finishes in their preliminary sections.
In the final, also run in sections, Small appeared to have the advantage, winning his race in 1:10.04 and breaking the school record Burrow had set last year.
But his reign as Rice record holder ended quickly as Burrow blew by the competition in 1:09.83, forcing Small to settle for second place overall.
"In the finals I got out well and ran a really smooth race," Burrow said. "It was pretty much the race I wanted."
Junior Brian Klein was the other Owl favorite entering the meet. But Klein's previous history of bad luck in the conference 800 meters made him less than a sure bet.
Unlike previous years, however, he was able to run the race without interference, and the result was a championship with a time of 1:50.24. For Klein, though, the victory did not spark jubilation.
"It's more a feeling of relief than anything else," Klein said. "I've had to deal with some adversity in this race the last few years, so I went into the race less concerned about the competition than with my own focus. I was hesitant until I got past the first turn, and then the race opened up for me."
Even more impressive was Klein's time in the preliminary heat. He ran a 1:49.18, the first and only automatic NCAA qualification earned by an Owl this season.
Ironically, this year's races were much more physical than any in recent memory.
In the preliminary section just after Klein's, freshman Jaime Price and junior Dan Brooks, both of whom Rice had been counting on to score, were knocked from the race.
"The track was much tighter than in previous years," Burrow said. "That led to more physical races because there just wasn't enough room."
Klein thought that this low point for the Owls might have been avoided with more conscientious officiating.
"The main problems occurred in the section after mine, and I think that it was the fault of the officials for not doing more to ensure a cleaner race," he said. "They could have run more heats for more space."
Several other athletes turned in strong performances for Rice. Luis Armenteros continued his success in the 3,000 meters.
He finished fourth in 8:25.40, one of his better times of the season.
"I ran all right," he said. "There were a couple things I could have done differently strategically."
Chad Kopp cleared 6-7 to earn second place in a fairly low-altitude high jump competition.
Freshman Drexell Owusu's leap of 49-1.5 was good for fourth in the triple jump.
The 4x400 team of Burrow, Klein, Small and Quinton Milner ran as expected, taking third-place in 3:11.65 behind Baylor and Texas Christian University.
Baylor's quartermilers were too much for Milner in the 400 meters. He won his preliminary heat in 49.43, but despite speeding to 48.55 in the finals, he finished only eighth.
Another victim of SWC depth was junior Kodili Odimgbe. The 1995 champion put the shot 51-11, but that landed him ninth overall, far behind University of Houston freshman John Davis, who also beat the veterans of Southern Methodist University.
"The meet had its ups and downs," Burrow said. "But nobody got hurt, and we did very well in several races, especially Brian [Klein]."
Klein now looks ahead to the NCAA Championships, where he will face 15 of the fastest halfmilers in the collegiate ranks.
"It's a big track [in the NCAAs], so there won't be any contact, so I plan to go out fast, faster than at conference," he said. "The top two from each preliminary heat advance, along with the next four on time, and I don't want to rely on time. I hope to win my heat.
"I don't think that will hurt me in the finals because I feel much stronger in my training this year than last."
Competition will be extremely tough, but Klein remains confident.
"I think that the finals will be fairly wide open; everyone should be within a second or two of each other," he said. "I feel pretty good about my chances."
Several other Owls will wait to see whether their provisional qualifications are good enough to earn the trip to the NCAAs.
The rest of the team will now concentrate on the upcoming outdoor season. "We're looking forward to outdoors," Armenteros said. "I think we're all tired of running on boards and ready for a real track."
This item appeared in the Sports section of the February 23, 1996 issue.
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