NORMAN, Okla. - A slew of Colonel track athletes will go hunting for the program's first ever individual indoor conference championships this week as the Nicholls State University women's track and field team looks to conclude one of their most successful indoor campaigns in recent history at the 2011 Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships hosted by the University of Oklahoma this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Colonels will take the track against 11 other schools that make up one of the best mid-major track conferences in the nation beginning on Friday.  With a small squad size compared to their league rivals, the Colonels are hoping that a core group of upperclassmen can help the Colonels score big points in a few events and help Nicholls improve it's position in the Southland Conference standings.

"The Southland is always a very successful conference in track and field," head coach Scott Williamson said.  "We're sitting pretty good going into the conference meet.  We have a lot of athletes ranked pretty high in their individual event rankings.  We're hoping to come out of it with some individual conference champions, something we've never had in the indoor season.  We have several girls who have a chance to do that.  Coming away with a few individual titles would be good.  Our team isn't really built to have a lot of depth in a lot of events, so moving up the standings by winning some individual titles would be a tremendous asset for us in the future."

Senior distance runner Lauren Jones has perhaps the strongest chance of becoming the first indoor conference champion in the history of the program.  The long distance specialist owns the best 5K time in the conference this year after clocking in a school record time of 17:57.10 at the Leonard Hilton Invitational on Jan. 14.  Jones' time is the best showing in the Southland Conference this season by a wide margin.  The Centerville, Iowa native leads the Southland pack by nearly 25 seconds.

Jones also has a chance, along with senior distance runner Kadi Whisnant and junior sprinter Samantha Calhoun, in vying for multiple conference titles.  Jones begins the week ranked eighth in the Southland in the 3,000 m, right behind Whisnant who ranks seventh in the league in the 3K.  Whisnant also ranks in the top five in the league in the mile (fifth, 5:03.06) and, along with Calhoun, is part of a distance medley relay team that ranks third in the league with a time of 12:12.44.  Calhoun, the Colonels' power running specialist will also look to make waves in the 60 m (where she currently ranks fourth with a time of 7.57) and 200 m (where she currently ranks fourth with a tmie of 25.09)

Over in the field events, senior high jumper Chelsea Dockrey has her sights set on the league high jump crown.  As the week begins, Dockrey is tied for second in the league with a season-best mark of 1.65 m (5 ft. 5 in.) just 0.02 m (0.75 in.) off the best mark in the league.  Freshman Kerri Simmons will also look to capitalize on the momentum gained from a school record showing in the shot put with a throw of 13.55 m that ranks ninth in the league this year.

The 2011 Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships will get underway on Friday at 8:30 a.m.  Links to live results will be made available on the women's track and field schedule page of www.geauxcolonels.com.