Colonel Cross Country Impresses at Season-Opening Meet

Sept. 4, 2009

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Goodman twins posted back-to-back top five finishes, and Lauren Jones finished in the top ten to lead the women's squad to a runner-up finish. Meanwhile, on the men's side, freshman Jordan Reed's tenth-place finish led the way as the Nicholls State University men's and women's cross country teams finished fourth and second, respectively at the 29th Annual Southern Miss Invitational.

Heading into the season-opening meet, head coach Matthew Esche wanted to see his men's squad run as a team, and that's what he got on Friday afternoon. Reed led the way for the Colonel men, clocking in at 22:58.27 on the four-mile course for a tenth-place finish. However, the Thibodaux native was just 36 seconds away from a top-five finish and his teammates were hot on his heels.

"I think that on our men's side we did a great job of showing that we have a very solid one-through-four pack," Esche said. "It was only a 16 seconds one-through-four, which is outstanding. The guys did a great job working as a team and I think we're only going to get stronger as the year goes on."

Reed was followed by Joseph Fryou (12th place/23:04.83), Ross Mullooly (13th place/23:08.59) and Tyler Folse (14th place/23:13.69) with the trio narrowly missing out on top-ten finishes of their own.

Meanwhile, the women's squad provided their own highlights as twin sisters Dakota and Brea Goodman earned top-five finishes in their first career meets and Jones followed in seventh.

Dakota clocked in at 18:54.57 in her first collegiate 5K and was just 17 seconds off the winning pace. Brea followed .58 seconds behind in fifth. Jones clocked in at 19:32.22. If not for injuries, Esche was confident his girls could have made a run a meet champ (and host institution) Southern Miss. However, the Colonels' ability to follow the race plan softened the runner-up finish for the first-year head coach.

"The girls did a great job following our race plan," Esche said. "They didn't go out too hard. Southern Miss went out very hard. We followed our race plan to a T. They executed the way I wanted them to execute. We were a little shorthanded with Jessica McLeod resting some knee injuries. But, if we had raced hard and inserted a healthy Jess, we could have easily won this meet. I'm content with where we are at, and I think this bodes well for our season."

After a week off, the men's and women's cross country squads will be back in action when they head to Mississippi State for the MSU Invitational on Sept. 19.