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The Rice Thresher
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Beckford posts nationšs best 400 hurdles time by Chris Larson thresher editorial staff
For months, the athletes have been building a foundation of strength and endurance in training. With the exception of indoor conference and national meets, competition has typically come right in the middle of intense training, meaning that the Owls have rarely had the chance to go into a meet with fresh, rested bodies. Now, at least for the most part, the foundation is in place. The athletes will begin to see just how far their preparation has taken them when they take a step back in their training and aim for quality marks at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, which began Wednesday and run through tomorrow. "The season's become very short now," men's head coach Ray Davidson said. "We're down to the last part, and the training's over. The cooking's done - now we're just going to pull it out of the oven and see what we've got." And there couldn't be a better place to show off talent than at the Texas Relays, one of the nation's premier track and field events. More than 5,000 high school, college and professional athletes will compete. There will be several Olympians present, including Maurice Greene, who won the unofficial title of "world's fastest man" with his gold medal in the 100-meter dash in Sydney. The coaches say there's no better way to build an athlete's confidence than by succeeding against the nation's, and the world's, best runners. "It gives them a booster," women's head coach Victor Lopez said. "We've been telling them in training to have the confidence that they can do things at the highest levels, and when that happens at the meet, it makes them firm believers." Still, the Owls maintain the meet must be kept in proper perspective - its most important function is to get the team ready for the upcoming Western Athletic Conference and NCAA meets. "It's like a big carnival," Lopez said. "We'll try to perform well but the goal is not to run crazy. If we end up running fast, that happens, but it's just one more track meet we're using as part of the preparation." The women's team enters the Texas Relays off a dominating performance at last week's Bayou Classic, held at the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium. The team competition wasn't even close, as the 18th-ranked Owls scored 221 points and second-place Harvard University finished with just 110. Highlighting the women's meet was sophomore Allison Beckford, who won the 400-meter hurdles in 56.58 seconds, defeating both former Rice athlete TaNisha Mills, winner of the 1997 WAC outdoor 400-meter dash title and Harvard's Brenda Taylor, who finished seventh at last year's NCAA Championships in the 400-meter hurdles. Beckford's time is currently the nation's fastest - and Rice's track is generally considered very slow. Beckford also anchored Rice's 1,600-meter relay team, which rallied to beat Rice's alumni team in a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3 minutes, 38.36 seconds. "She was unbelievable," Lopez said. "That was the first time Allison has run the 400 hurdles in two years, and her personal best is 56.52. She's an automatic qualifier by a lot. I wasn't expecting her to go that fast. She ran a very soft race for the first part of the race. But she's so talented that she came up from behind. TaNisha was running real fast, so she ended up running fast. "Then she came back in the mile relay, and she took the baton 20 meters behind and passed TaNisha Mills in the final stretch with a split of 51.5. Her and I have been talking about doubling in the 400 and the 400 hurdles at nationals. I'm delighted. Allison is one of a kind." The men's team scored 150 points, just outdistancing runner-up University of Texas at San Antonio, which finished with 145. Freshman Adam Davis won the 1,500-meter run in 3:52.19 and senior Rashad Stafford swept the 110- and 400-meter hurdles events. The Owls also won both the 400- and 1,600-meter relay events. Sophomore high jumpers Reed Ballis and Tommy Oleksy continued the transition from indoor to outdoor by finishing second and third, respectively, both clearing the bar at 6 feet, 8 inches. "It was an OK start to the outdoor season," Ballis said. "It's the first time in two years I've worked on the full approach with all 10 steps, because all of indoor is working from a half approach. I didn't expect to do very well - I expected to go about 6-4 - but I went 6-8, which still isn't very good. It's just hard with all that speed. "With indoor, I went 7-1/4 but I didn't have enough speed to get over the higher heights. I'm trying to get the speed to get over 7-2 or 7-3. This weekend I want to get back to where I was in indoor and then progress from there."
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