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The Rice Thresher
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by Chris Larson thresher editorial staff Second place isn't bad, especially when you lose to the top-ranked team in the country. The women's indoor track and field team began its season last weekend with a runner-up finish in the Southwest Indoor Classic at the University of Houston. The Owls scored 93 points to finish behind the University of Texas, which totaled 126 points. The unranked Rice team easily outdistanced the other eight teams in the meet. Third-place Texas A&M University scored 55 points, and in a telling display of the vulnerability of early-season rankings, 20th-ranked Baylor University scored just 47 points and seventh-ranked Houston managed just 43.5. "Sometimes you don't want to compete with the best teams right away," head coach Victor Lopez said. "But competing against them and running with them showed the girls they can run with anyone in the country. We executed very well, and that's what we want in the early meets." The Owls took home four titles, second only to top-ranked Texas' six. Rice was especially strong in middle distance events. Sophomore Tanya Wright won the 800-meter run in 2 minutes, 10.97 seconds, and the distance medley relay team comprised of juniors Aimee Teteris, Erin Brand and Katie Waite and sophomore Allison Beckford won in 11:48.70 by a margin of more than 17 seconds. Beckford and Teteris joined with seniors Kelechi Anderson and LaKeisha Robertson to complete a relay sweep for Rice by winning the 1,600-meter relay in 3:44.26, the fastest time a group of Owls has ever posted in the season's first meet. Junior Liza Ruckman and freshman Magdalena Sandoval added to Rice's distance strength by placing second and third, respectively, in the mile. "To our expectations, everything came out like we planned," Lopez said. "There were a few minor technical things to be fixed, but that's because it was the first meet." Junior thrower Jessica Sommerfeld also set the stage for a big season by posting a career-best shot put of 49 feet, 4.25 inches, almost five feet in front of her nearest competitor. The heave provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA Championships. Sommerfeld won last year's Western Athletic Conference title with a throw of just over 47 feet, but had never posted an NCAA qualifying mark. Lopez said that such high-caliber results in the season's first meet are a product of a team that has learned to demand excellence of itself. "They've always been a team that knows why I demand what I do of them, and they perform up to that," Lopez said. "This team is a step above a number of the teams out there, and they're showing a lot of pride in that." After returning to the UH Fieldhouse this weekend for the Houston Indoor Invitational, the Owls compete Feb. 10 in the Golden Spikes Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., the site of the NCAA Championships in early March. "We're right on schedule," Lopez said. "The meet Feb. 10 is a big one for us. The best teams in the nation are going to be there, and we're going to be looking for a very good performance."
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