BATON ROUGE - Five Colonel performances from four different Nicholls State University track and field athletes earned all state recognition as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association announced its 2011 All-State performances for the outdoor track and field season on Saturday night.

Senior distance runners Lauren Jones, Jessica McLeod and Kadi Whisnant and senior high jumper Chelsea Dockrey all turned in performances that ranked in the top three in their events among Louisiana schools.

Jones led the way for the Colonels, recording a pair of all-state performances.  Nicholls' long distance specialist clocked in with the fastest 10,000 m in the state during the 2011 outdoor season, recording a school record time of 36:03.32 at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays in April.  Jones edged out McNeese State's Fionnoula Ross by nearly three seconds for the state's top spot. 

Jones, a Centreville, Iowa native, also turned in the state's second best performance in the 5,000 m.  Jones recorded another school record performance in April with a time of 17:26.21 at the Pepsi Florida Relays.  Jones' school record was bettered only by LSU's Laura Carleton who recorded a 5K time of 16:41.09.

Whisnant gave Nicholls two of the state's top performers, cruising to the top time in the 3,000 m steeplechase.  Whisnant won her second consecutive Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship in the steeplechase and blew away in-state competition with a season-best time of 10:47.15 recorded at the conference championship.  Whisnant's closest in-state competition was ULM's Madeline Robertson who was more than half a minute behind at 11:26.05.

McLeod rounded out a strong showing by the Nicholls distance crew with the third-best time in the state in the 1,500, clocking a season-best and school record time 4:33.54 set at Mt. SAC in April.  McLeod's time was good enough to qualify the Clarendon, Jamaica native for the 2011 Jamaican National Track and Field Championships where she finished fifth in the 1,500 on Friday night.

Rounding out the Colonels' group of all-state honorees was Dockrey, who recorded the second best mark in the high-jump among Louisiana competitors this season.  The Florence, Texas native finished the regular season ranked 15th in the NCAA East Region after winning the 2011 Southland Conference Outdoor High Jump championship at the league meet in May.  Dockrey's career and school record height of 1.76 m (5 ft. 9.25 in.). 

Dockrey's mark qualified her for the 2011 NCAA National Championship East Preliminary meet in May where she finished 27th, but just 0.08 m away from a top-12 finish in a crowded field that would have advanced her to the NCAA Finals.  Her season best jump ranked second in the state behind only Brittani Carter of LSU who cleared 5 ft. 11.25 in to claim the top mark in the state.