Nicholls Continues Progress at Purple Tiger

Jan. 22, 2010

Complete 2010 Purple Tiger Results in PDF Format 

BATON ROUGE - Lining up against the deepest field they have seen all year, the Colonels did not disappoint on Friday night, as the Nicholls State University women's track and field team turned in five more conference qualifying times and missed a school record by just 0.01 seconds at the Purple Tiger Invitational.

"I think from a competitive standpoint, this is probably the deepest field we are going to see all year," head coach Scott Williamson said. "Our girls lined up against some of the best teams in the country as well as some of the best professional athletes in our sport and they held their own."

When the Colonels took the track on Friday, they did so against the No. 3 women's program in the country, in the form of host LSU. The field at the Purple Tiger was also bolstered by defending Southland Conference champion Stephen F. Austin, Conference USA rivals Tulane and Southern Miss and traditional SEC power Mississippi State. To make things even tougher, the Colonels lined up against numerous professional and Olympic athletes.

However, Nicholls got off to a strong start thanks to sophomore sprinterSamantha Calhoun. The Morgan City native, who owns the best 60 m time in the Southland Conference this indoor season, finished just 0:00.01 away from tying her school record in the event.

Calhoun clocked in at 7.66 in the prelims, marking the third time this season she has clocked in under 7.70 in the event.

The Colonel distance crew picked up where Calhoun left off by recording five conference qualifying marks on Friday night. Nicholls turned in three qualifiers in the mile as freshman Brea Goodman led the way with a 5:17.84 second place (among collegians) showing. Junior Kadi Whisnant was hot on her heels with a third place time of 5:19.56. Junior Jessica McLeod rounded things out with an sixth place showing of 5:26.08.

Nicholls saw two more conference qualifiers in the 3K as junior Lauren Jones set the pace for Nicholls with a time of 10:27.18, good enough for second place. Freshman Dakota Goodman followed in third at 10:32.83.

"This was a big building block for us," Williamson said. "Sam beat a lot of conference schools, the only people that finished ahead of her were from LSU or Tulane. Dakota, Brea, Lauren, Jess and Kadi all did very well and got us top five performances. We have a lot of work to do, but this meet shows us that we are heading in the right direction."