Sept. 13, 2002

WACO, Texas - Members of the Baylor cross country team will travel to Houston this weekend for the Rice Invitational. Both the men and women will compete on Saturday morning, Sept. 14. Although head coach Todd Harbour is not anticipating competing with a full squad, he still expects top performances from his runners at the meet.

While the full women's squad will not be competing, Baylor runners could still turn in some top times. Six teams will race on the 4,200 m course on the campus of Rice University. Start time for the ladies is scheduled for 8:20 a.m.

The men will be competing with a "B" squad in order to give several members of the team the chance to prove how they are capable of racing. At 8:45 a.m., six men's teams will compete for the title on a course that was designed through the Rice campus. The unique design of the course means that it is not a traditional length. For the men's race, the distance will be somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 meters.

Both Bears squads set high standards for the year when they opened the season Aug. 30 at the Rice Cross Country Meet. No team scores were kept, but Baylor individuals took the top place in each race. Senior Debbie Thornhill finished the 5,000-meter women's course in 18:00 to finish first. On the men's side, newcomer Bo Price finished first with a time of 15:39 in the 5,000-meter race. Each squad placed four runners among the Top 10 at that meet.