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The Rice Thresher
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Undefeated womenıs relays qualify for NCAA Championships by Chris Larson thresher editorial staff
Judging by the tough competition, they might stay that way for a long time. The relay wins paced Rice to a second-place team finish in a loaded 14-team field. Second-ranked University of Texas, which defeated the Owls in the Southwest Classic Jan. 26, remains the only team that has beaten Rice this season, winning with 117 points. The Owls, who finished with 63 points, even beat the nation's top-ranked team, University of Arkansas, which finished third with 52 points, but Arkansas didn't send its whole team. Western Athletic Conference rival Texas Christian University was fourth with 49 points, and 12th-ranked UH finished a distant ninth with 32 points. Texas almost handed Rice's 1,600-meter relay its first defeat. Sophomore Allison Beckford began the anchor leg trailing the Longhorn runner but gradually closed the gap. Down the stretch, the Texas runner began to drift out in front of Beckford. Beckford missed catching her by a split-second, but Texas was disqualified for interference. "I feel very happy," head coach Victor Lopez said. "I was very encouraged in the performance this past week because so early we have qualified both the mile relay and the medley." Rice's NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3 minutes, 40.92 seconds was more than three seconds faster than the group had run the previous weekend at the Southwest Classic. Seniors Kelechi Anderson and LaKeisha Robertson, junior Aimee Teteris and Beckford make up the relay team. The time is currently second-best in the nation, behind only the University of South Carolina, which met the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 3:37. "They beat twice perhaps the best four-by-four relay team in the nation in Texas," Lopez said. "If everything goes right, I think we can run an automatic time this week." The distance medley relay race wasn't nearly as close. Rice set a UH Fieldhouse record and ran away from the field in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 11:35.54, defeating closest competitor TCU by more than 15 seconds. And the scary thing is that it wasn't even Rice's four best athletes. "In the distance medley relay we have not run the real personnel we're going to use together," Lopez said. "Either Aimee or [sophomore] Tanya [Wright] will run either one of the 1,200 and the 800 - they're both good in both. It will probably be Allison Beckford in the 400, and at the mile we'll use [senior] Erin Brand if she's at her best, but we also have [senior] Katie Waite. We could go either way." Wright, Anderson, Waite and junior Liza Ruckman made up the team Saturday. Along with the victory in the 1,600-meter relay, Teteris rallied to win the 800-meter race in a meet-record time of 2:10.03 and was named the WAC Runner of the Week. "It felt really good," Teteris said. "It was unusual because everyone went out really, really quickly and I was behind for the first 600 meters. I didn't think I had any chance of winning. Then the last 200, I got up and I just felt really good." The Owls showed strength in the field events as well. Sophomore Alice Falaiye won the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 11.75 inches, and junior Jessica Sommerfeld placed second by recording her second straight provisional shot put with a throw of 48-11. The Owls' weakest area so far is the sprints. Only a sixth-place finish by Robertson in the 200-meter dash kept Rice from being shut out from the scoring in the 60, 200, and 400. "There are some minor details in the sprints," Lopez said. "There are little technical things at the start that kill the sprinters because the race is so short and they're running against the best in the country. Hopefully that will be taken care of by conference time." Rice has already shown it is among the top teams in the region. Next weekend, the Owls get the opportunity to show that they're among the best in the nation when they compete in the Golden Spikes Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., the site of the NCAA Championships Mar. 8-10. Texas will be there, and host Arkansas will be at full strength. South Carolina, which overtook the No. 1 spot in this week's national poll, will be competing, as will third-ranked Clemson University. The Owls debuted in the national rankings this week at the 25th spot, and this weekend is a great chance to move up. "This weekend's a quality meet," Lopez said. "It's on the same track as nationals, which is the fastest track around. The meet will be at the highest level, so we hope to perform at the highest level. "The girls are just in great shape. Everyone's contributing. They're happy and their attitudes are good. They know they're winners."
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