Odimgbe, Wilmington set PR's at TSU Relays

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by Ben Glassman

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The men's track team began to warm up to the outdoor season last weekend at the Texas Southern University Relays although they competed at far less than full strength. Several of Rice's top performers either did not compete or did so sparingly in order to rest and heal various minor injuries.

Half-miler Brian Klein, for example, is nursing a bothersome IT Bend.

"It's never happened to me before, so hopefully it's not too serious," he said.

Andrew Burrow similarly was held out of competition, and Quinton Milner ran in the preliminaries of the intermediate hurdles, but were held out of the finals.

"We would have liked to put more emphasis on TSU," Head Coach Ray Davidson said. "But it was in the best interests of the team not to."

The Owls are in the middle of a transition period between the indoor and outdoor seasons. Having peaked for indoors, the team wants to return to basics before building to a second peak for outdoors. The times turned in by several runners just before and at the NCAA Indoor Championships translate into concern that they are running too fast for this time of year.

The coaching strategy, Davidson explains, is not to hold anyone back but to provide a "mental break between Nationals and Texas Relays."

"The rest of the meets are important, but we're mainly going to use them for training," he said.

Coaching is particularly complicated this year because while most athletes need to peak at conference or NCAAs, a select few need to turn in their top performances at the Olympic Trials in June.

Several Owls turned in notable performances.

Junior Kodili Odimgbe took third place in the shot put, setting a personal best in the process.

"Kod's had to put up with a lot of anguish changing from the glide to rotational technique," Davidson said. "But now he looks like a shot putter again. He has the chance to be really good, and he deserves a tremendous amount of credit."

Odimgbe was happy about finally gaining distance with his new style.

"It felt good," he said. "That personal record was my goal for TSU."

Even more encouraging, though, is that Odimgbe fouled on a toss of 57-6, a provisional-qualifying distance.

"I'm not satisfied because now I'm ready to qualify automatically; that's my next goal," he said.

The difference in his breakthrough, he believes, is confidence.

"When I was throwing 46 feet a few weeks ago, I was just going through the motions. Now I'm starting to look like guys who are good shot putters. So I know that I know what I'm doing. That confidence was what propelled me."

Senior Chad Kopp captured third-place in the high jump, clearing 6-10. And senior Jeff Lewis made his return from injury a success by finishing third in the 1,500 meters. Lewis has been rehabilitating a stress fracture with extensive running in the pool.

"Jeff was straight out of the pool onto the track," Davidson said. "He put in hard work in the pool, which can be extremely boring. He should return to top form in the next four weeks."

Junior Derras Wilmington continued to impress in the hurdles and long jump. Held out of the indoor season to heal his back, Wilmington improved in the 110-meter high hurdles to 14.86, good for eighth place. In addition, he leaped 24-3 1/2 in the long jump, a personal best, to finish fourth.

The relay teams also saw action. The distance medley team finished second in 10:06.84, and the 4x800- meter relay team defeated all other collegians in that event with a time of 7:32.49.

Junior Dan Brooks saw plenty of action, running a leg on each relay before the finals of the 1,500 meters. "I didn't do that well in the last event because I was just dead tired," he said.

Tomorrow the team will be at the Rice Track Stadium for the Rice Triangular with Harvard University and Houston, beginning at 9 a.m.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the March 29, 1996 issue.

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