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The Rice Thresher
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by Chris Larson thresher editorial staff Several members of the men's and women's track and field teams are in the same boat. They have justified hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championships held in Eugene, Ore., May 30-June 2 and have posted competitive marks - but the marks aren't quite good enough. They've either posted provisional qualifying marks, but are too far down the list to make the cut if it happened today, or they're mere seconds or inches from the provisional qualifying standard. Within the next month, each of these athletes will need to find one big performance that will vault him or her up the list - and the Owls have three chances remaining. First, they'll travel to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa this weekend. After a break for finals, they'll be at the Texas A&M University Open May 10 and will compete in the Western Athletic Conference Championships May 17-19 in Fresno, Calif. For the women, sophomore Allison Beckford has all but secured a spot with her time of 56.50 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles, which places her second nationally, and she's 12th in the 400-meter dash. Sophomore long jumper Alice Falaiye is a comfortable ninth nationally. Rice's 400-meter relay is eighth, and the Owls' 1,600-meter relay, at 14th, is currently right around the typical cutoff line. Beyond that, however, several other Owls need to move up the list. Junior Jessica Sommerfeld led the Owls to a fourth-place team finish at the University of Texas Longhorn Invitational last weekend by winning the shot put and the javelin. Her shot put of 49-4 1/4 was a personal-best mark that ranks her 24th nationally. Last year, the NCAA invited 22 athletes to compete in the national meet in the shot put. Her javelin mark of 149-2 at the meet, another career best, is less than two feet short of the NCAA provisional standard. Junior Keitha Moseley is in a similar situation. She ran a career-best 13.52 last weekend in the 100-meter hurdles, which meets the provisional qualifying standard, but her mark is only 31st nationally. "It was a training-type meet, but we had some good performances," women's head coach Victor Lopez said. "Jessica's throwing very, very well. She's at her best right now - she just needs to put it together. I think Keitha can improve on her 13.52 - she's in much better shape than that." Rice's two top 800-meter runners, junior Aimee Teteris and sophomore Tanya Wright, also hope to improve their times. Both have shown the potential to contend at the national level - Teteris was third at the NCAA indoor meet before being disqualified for impeding a runner, and Wright came into the NCAA meet with the nation's third-fastest time. But neither has met the outdoor qualifying standard of 2:07.50. Wright won at last weekend's meet, but she was slowed by windy conditions and finished in 2:11.95. "It was really windy at Texas," Lopez said. "Tanya and Aimee are both lining up at Drake, and the weather's supposed to be great." The men's team sent three of its distance runners to the prestigious Mount SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Junior Keith Pierce and senior John Jura ran personal-best times in the 1,500-meter run and the 10,000-meter run, respectively, but missed qualifying. Freshman Adam Davis won both of his 800-meter races over the weekend, but his time of 1:49.18 just missed the provisional qualifying standard of 1:48.80. "I felt that the race went well this past weekend," Davis said. "I really wish I had hit the qualifying standard, but I think next week will be a great opportunity to do so. The field in the invitational 800-meter at Drake Relays is stacked. If I can just hang on and stay in the race, it should set me up to qualify for nationals." At the Texas Christian University Invitational last weekend, senior Rashad Stafford almost provisionally qualified in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.95, just five-hundredths of a second off the 13.90 standard. "I was glad to see him get under 14 [seconds]," men's head coach Ray Davidson said. "It was a little disappointing because it got away from him some on the last three hurdles. We've been working on his technique, and he started trying too hard. I feel really good about how he's hurdling." Several athletes will be looking for quality marks this weekend, but the major milestone approaching is the WAC meet. The women's team appears ready to defend its title, and the men's team, though young, believes second place behind TCU, which is ranked second nationally, is an attainable goal. "We're getting better and I think we're going to do well," Davidson said. "TCU will probably totally dominate it, but second place is up for grabs."
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