The Rice women’s track and field team secured the American Conference championship on May 17, marking a significant achievement for head coach Jim Bevan, who was named the American Conference Coach of the Year for the fifteenth time.
This victory is important as it represents Rice’s first title in this conference and highlights Bevan’s longstanding leadership. The Owls have now earned their 24th conference title in program history, with 14 of those coming under Bevan. He has led teams to championships across several conferences, including the Southwest Conference, WAC, CUSA, and now the American Conference.
Savannah Simms returned from injury to win the triple jump with a mark of 13.19 meters on her first attempt since January, qualifying her for NCAA regionals. In other notable performances, Barbora Malíková won the 400 meters with a time of 52.02 seconds and completed an indoor/outdoor sweep in that event. Riana Green finished third in the same race while Arayna Mickles placed fifth. Alice Taylor finished second in high jump after winning heptathlon earlier in the meet; her sister Josie Taylor placed sixth.
Freshman Sydney Freeman took third place in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.97 seconds. The relay team of Green, Mickles, Freeman and Malíková posted a season-best time to finish second in the 4×400-meter relay.
Reflecting on his team’s performance at this meet and over his career at Rice, Jim Bevan said: “I am so proud of the effort these athletes displayed this weekend… This is honestly a surreal moment. I am so proud to be the coach of this team and to have been head coach of the Rice Owls for last twenty years. This is truly like a fairytale ending.”
Regional qualifiers for NCAA West Prelims will be announced next week.
