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Several top-25 schools were represented in the eleven-team field; the College of William and Mary, ranked No. 12 in the nation, placed first. Rice Head Coach Jon Warren was pleased with his team's seventh-place performance on the hilly course.

"It was a strong meet and a tough course, but I think we did quite well," he said.

Sophomore Lachlan McArthur led the Owls, finishing 17th with a time of 26 minutes, 32 seconds for the 5.2 mile course. "I was happy with my run and the team did really well," McArthur said.

Running in sixth or seventh place for most of the race, McArthur had a slight asthma problem and dropped back for the finish. He said that his legs were fine and he looked forward to running against some Texas schools this weekend.

"We got a lot of good out of this race, and I think it showed that we can run with some good schools," Warren added.

Junior Jeff Piper agreed. "We've had two good races so far this year, and we're looking forward to [future meets]." The second Owl to finish, Piper ran one of his best races ever, clocking a personal-record time four miles into the race.

However, he slipped at the bottom of a hill 800 meters from the finish and had no momentum left for the climb. Struggling up the hill, he was passed by several other runners, but managed to catch all but two of them before the finish.

"He had a solid race and an incredible last 80 meters," Warren said, commenting on Piper's 22nd place overall finish.

Sophomore Tyson Hendricksen, a former Western Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week who has led the Owls the last two meets, fell behind this week to finish third for Rice and 36th overall.

"Everyone else did really well, and I just had a bad week," Hendricksen said, mentioning he was looking forward to next week's Texas A&M Invitational to get back to his normal running level.

Hendricksen and the other runners praised freshman Keith Pierce, a former football player and 800-meter track runner in high school who finished fifth for the Owls in only his second cross-country race.

"It's different, but challenging," Pierce said, but added that he was glad it was a tough meet "to prepare for the future."

McArthur called Pierce's finish probably "the best performance on the team." He was also pleased to see the result training during the summer and the four weeks at school before the season, he said.

Sophomores John Jura and Mike Nalepa, who are recovering from injury and illness respectively, finished fourth and sixth for the Owls, and junior Scott Palmer was Rice's seventh runner.

All the runners are looking forward to this weekend's race in College Station. "I think [this week] will be a deciding meet," Piper said. "If we can get it together and run well at A&M, we'll have that momentum for Conference and District [Championships]."

The Rice team has suffered a little the past several years because of the team's relative inexperience. Juniors Piper and Palmer are the two oldest members. Though a handicap this year, the team's youthfulness could be beneficial next year.

"We might not set the world on fire this year, but I think we'll be a team to look out for next year," McArthur said.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the October 16, 1998 issue.