Track and field athlete, coach take tops
Colwick, Bevan earn awards from region

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

It has been a banner year for track and field at Rice University. In addition to honors earned by other Owls, junior track and field athlete Jason Colwick has been named the South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year for the 2009 outdoor season, and Jim Bevan, women’s track head coach, won the South Central Region Coach of the Year. Both honors were given by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

	JIM BEVAN		JASON COLWICK

Colwick, a pole vaulter from San Marcos, Texas, owns the world’s No. 2 and the NCAA’s No. 1 mark at 18 feet, 9.25 inches, which he set while winning the Texas Relays in April. The engineering and economics major most recently captured the NCAA Midwest Regional gold medal with a winning height of 18-2.75 in Norman, Okla., and is competing this week in the Division I NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship.

Colwick’s second-highest vault of the season occurred when he won the Texas Invitational in May with a mark of 18-8.25. He has cleared the 18-foot mark six times, including 18-1.25 at the Rice All-Comers and 18-0.5 at the Texas Twilight and J. Fred Duckett/Rice Twilight meets.

Bevan’s South Central Region Coach of the Year win builds on his honor as the 2009 Conference USA Coach of the Year, the 2007 C-USA Coaches Choice Award winner and the 2007 South Central Region Coach of the Year for Cross Country.

“It’s is a great honor to win this award as it comes from a vote of my peers,” Bevan said. “It is also an honor as it recognizes the whole program and the hard work from my assistant coaches, staff and girls on the team.”

This year, Bevan, who boasts a 100 percent graduation rate for the student-athletes he has worked with, led Rice to its third consecutive C-USA Outdoor Championship. Now in his fourth year as head coach and 23rd overall at Rice, Bevan is leading a contingent of five Rice distance runners at this week’s 28th NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Fayetteville, Ark. Running for the Owls are Nicole Mericle and Lennie Waite in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Allison Pye and Callie Wells in the 5,000 and Becky Wade in the 10,000.