Colonel Women Topple State, Region Rivals at LSU

Sept. 26, 2009

BATON ROUGE - With a golden opportunity to solidify their No. 14 South Central Region ranking, the Nicholls State University women's cross country team did not disappoint on Saturday as the Colonels finished ahead of six of seven regional rivals en route to a second place finish at the LSU Invitational.

The Colonel women totaled 56 points, just 16 behind the region's tenth-ranked team, the University of Houston. The Cougars defended their 2008 LSU Invitational title with a meet-low 40 points. Nicholls still managed to better all other region foes at the meet including: Southland Conference rival Lamar (third, 65), host LSU (fourth, 94), traditional power Tulane (fifth, 143), Southland foe Southeastern Louisiana (sixth, 151) and in-state rivals UL-Lafayette (seventh, 180) and Southern (11th, 341).

"It's always important to beat other teams in your region anytime you line up against them," head cross country coach Matthew Esche said. "The women really ran strong today against some really good programs and served notice that the way we ran at Mississippi State (second place on Sept. 19) and Southern Miss (second place on Sept. 4). were not flukes."

Junior Lauren Jones led the way for the Colonels with a third-place time of 19:25.69. She was joined in the top ten by the Goodman twins as freshmen Dakota and Brea battled each other for eighth. Dakota managed to clock in first with a time of 19:45.75, with Brea less than a second behind with a ninth-place time of 19:46.85.

Nicholls showed improved depth in its deepest field of the season as the Colonels posted five runners among the top 19 collegiate finishers. Junior Jessica McLeod posted a 17th-place time of 20:16.44 with Kadi Whisnant claiming 19th with a time of 20:28.07.

"I think the girls realized that we needed a good race to really get our identity out there," Esche said. "We've run well this year, but the girls really came through today. I asked them to do what they have already done, plus a little bit more and they delivered. Our goal was to get three in the top fifteen and five in the top thirty, and we were able to get three in the top ten and five in the top 19. That made for a very exciting day."

The Colonel men earned a top ten finish in a competitive field with a ninth-place total of 249. Tyler Folse led the way with a time of 29:35.85.

"On the men's side, I think we need to keep in mind that we are very young and this was a good learning experience for us," Esche said. "We've only been running five guys and they're all freshmen and sophomores. We've seen some improvement, but this is a reminder that we need to keep working. We haven't backed off our training at all, and that will probably continue going all the way through to the conference meet."