2011 Southland Conference Indoor Championships Final Results

NORMAN, Okla. - Six all-conference honorees, nine scorers, four school records and one event championship all added up to the best showing in school history as the Nicholls State University women's track and field team concluded the 2011 Southland Conference Championships in school record fashion on Saturday.

The Colonels racked up 48 points and finished eighth, marking the highest point total and best team finish in program history for an indoor conference meet.  After Nicholls recorded 17 points on day one on Friday, the Colonels continued to pile up points on Saturday, recording 29 points on the final day of the meet.

After recording the first indoor event conference championship in school history with a win in the distance medley relay, along with a fourth-place showing in the 5K from senior distance runner Lauren Jones that narrowly missed all-conference honors, and a seventh-place performance from senior high jumper Chelsea Dockrey to account for their day one points; Nicholls got top-eight scoring performances on day two from junior sprinter Samantha Calhoun (second in the 60 m, fifth in the 200 m), senior distance runner Jessica McLeod (fifth in the 800 m), senior distance runner Kadi Whisnant (fifth in the mile), Jones (sixth in the 3,000 m) and freshman thrower Kerri Simmons (second in the shot put).

Simmons and Calhoun combined to give Nicholls a pair of top-three finishes on day two, qualifying the pair to receive All Southland Conference honors.  Simmons' toss of 14.58 m set a new school record and placed her second in the women's shot put.  Calhoun clocked in at a school record pace of 7.55 in the 60 m, good enough for third place and all-conference honors.  The duo combined with the distance medley relay team of Calhoun, Whisnant, McLeod and Jackie White

Simmons and Calhoun were joined by Jones and McLeod, giving Nicholls four school record performances on the weekend.  Jones, after narrowly missing all-conference honors in the 5K the day before, clocked in with a program best time of 10:07.94 in the 3K.  McLeod, after helping to set a new school standard in the DMR, returned on Saturday to turn in a time of 2:14.61 to have a hand in her second school record of the week.

The Colonels finished just three points shy of seventh place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and nine-points shy of Northwestern State and Sam Houston State who tied for fifth.

The Colonels will try to carry that momentum into the outdoor season, which begins in March with a trip to the Southern Miss Invitational on March 12.