Sept. 17, 2007

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Nicholls women's cross country placed eighth while the men's cross country had a strong showing coming in tenth at the Crimson Classic hosted by the University of Alabama this past Saturday.

"I was happy to see how the teams did against SEC caliber runners," said head cross country coach Scott Willaimson. "We are improving with every meet and making progress in practice everyday."

For the women's team, freshman Michaela Guidry led the way for the Colonels finishing 25th out of 95 participants in the classic with a time of 19:32.24 in the 5k run. Junior Charlotte Everhardt was not far behind Guidry with her 29th place finish with a time of 19:50.23. Other Lady Colonels making strides in the classic was senior Eunice Jepkogei, freshman Kadi Whisnant, and sophomore Marion Chebet. Jepkogei clocked out with a 21:06.37 time that was good enough for 53rd in the classic, while Whisnant finished the race in 74th with a mark of 22:02.30. Chebet rounded out Nicholls in 79th with a time of 22:31.48.

The men's squad notched 10th place in the classic partly due to the outstanding running of true freshman Brandon Kotzur who finished 39th. Kotzur had a Colonel best of 27:33.18 in the 8k race, while true freshman Brandon Loupe followed with a 29:01.32 showing that placed him 61st. True freshman Phillip Culotta finished 73rd with a time of 30:50.50, and true freshman Logan Milano punched out with a time of 31:52.47 to hold the 79th spot. Finishing 86th was true freshman Ivan Vazquez with a time of 34:29.06.

Both teams will be back in action at the LSU Tiger Cross Country Invitational on Saturday September 22.