Colonels Complete Season Opener at Southern Miss

March 13, 2010

 

Complete Results

 

 

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Nine Colonel athletes turned in top-five performances as the Nicholls State University women's track and field team opened the 2010 outdoor season at the Southern Miss Invitational on Saturday. Nicholls was led by Samantha Calhoun's second place finish in the 100 m dash, Rahjanaye Bailey's pair of top-five finishes and a pair of personal records in the javelin by freshman throwers Aja Scott and Ana Foulds.

Heading into the team's 2010 outdoor season opener, Nicholls State University women's track and field head coach Scott Williamson had modest goals for his team.

"We looked at this meet as a training meet," Williamson said. "Our times were okay, they were nothing spectacular, but we trained our girls really hard all week leading up to this meet. This is a transition time for us. We're coming out a very successful indoor season, and now we need to get in shape for some outdoor events that we haven't had a whole lot of time to train for. I was really please with our javelin throwers, our 400 m hurdlers and our 4x100 m relay team. For not having a lot of time to work on those events, we did alright. Now we have to keep at it and get ready for next week."

Calhoun got things started when she clocked in with the fourth-best 100 m time in school history. The Morgan City native's time of 12.25 earned her second place, just 0:00.09 behind champion Ja-Courtney Alexander of Troy.

Bailey started her senior outdoor campaign right with a pair of top-five finishes. Bailey started out in the 100 m hurdles, clocking in at 15.48 for fifth place, before taking second in the 400 m hurdles with a time of 1:05.71. Each performance was the fourth-best time in school history for its event.

The Colonel javelin squad also had a good day battling 20-25 MPH crosswinds. Sophomore Danielle Daigleled the way with a toss of 39.33 m (129-0.5) to take third place. The 2009 All-Southland honoree was followed by Aja Scott in fourth (38.43 m/126-1), 2009 NCAA Championship qualifier Leslie Bourgeois in fifth (38.26 m/125-6.25) and Anna Foulds (37.28 m/122-3.75). Despite the challenging conditions, Scott and Foulds each managed a personal best in their first collegiate meets.

Redshirt senior Chelsea Dockrey, competing as an unattached athlete, took the win in the high jump by clearing 1.63 m (5-4.25). Noelle Jones of South Alabama also cleared the bar at 1.63, but Dockery claimed the day's title on fewer misses.

The Colonels will return to action next week when they head to Lafayette for the Louisiana Classics on March 19-20 at UL-Lafayette.