The Panther

The Panthers' finished third in the Rice Invitational cross country competition Saturday at Rice University.

Heading into the season strong, the team went into the competition hoping to get their feet wet, and no doubt did, and placing two runners in the top 15.

"At Rice the top five students ran well, and competition-wise we are where we're supposed to be," head coach Clifton Gilliard said.

The Rice Invitational consisted of five teams: Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Kingsville, Houston Baptist, Rice, and Prairie View A&M. The course was a 5400-meter run, approximately to 3.4 miles, and the Panthers finished well with an average time of 19:02 minutes.

"The pace was fast so you couldn't fall behind; we have to work hard as a team, everybody," said senior cross country runner Ben Green. "It's a team sport, so everyone has to practice hard and work hard."

This came after the sixth overall placing in the Texas State invitational Sept. 8. The competitions leading up to the SWAC championship are testing the waters for the coaches and the team, to find out who is going to be in the top spots for competitions. "This year has a different look, last year we knew the top eight runners. This year we are trying to pinpoint the five and six spots," Gilliard said.

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