Women's Results | Men's Results

BATON ROUGE – The Nicholls State University cross country teams competed at the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park Saturday morning. The women posted a fifth-place finish while the men placed eighth.

Freshman Julia Garcia Verges was the Colonels top female finisher for the second consecutive meet, crossing the finish line in the women's 3 mile at 20 minutes, 19.65 seconds for 20^th place. She was followed by freshmen Lara Reifers (24^th | 20:30.78) and Faith Keter (31^st | 20:58.84), sophomores Eleana Callejas (34^th | 21:04.91) and Joyce Kiplagat (37^th | 21:15.86) and freshman Isabelle Caron (47^th | 25:16.46).

"The women had a good showing against several strong regional teams," Nicholls head coach Stefanie Slekis said. "Our goal was to beat UL-Lafayette and race as a close pack for our 1-5 runners so we were happy to match up so well against them. As we continue to gain more fitness we are working to close in on the Southland Conference opponents. We handled the half-mile increase in distance from our last competition and the hills well."

Freshman Jonathan Hernandez fronted the men's pack, finishing 32^nd in the men's 4 mile at 22:22.60. Fellow freshman Tyler Granger placed 36^th at 22:42.50. The men's group was rounded out by freshmen Daniel Figueroa (50^th | 23:36), Dustin Worley (53^rd | 24:06.10) and Lane Robichaux (60^th | 25:52.90).

"On the men's side I was pleased with how aggressively we got out with our top two going through the mile in 4:53 in the top 20," Slekis said. "We have been doing long workouts preparing to race the 8k and 10k at the end of the season so we were racing on tired legs for our team's first 4-mile race. With all of our top five being freshmen, we will keep getting better each week. This was an excellent learning opportunity for our men to race against several regionally-ranked teams."

LSU's Julia Palin (18:13.29) took home the individual crown on the women's side while Tulane's Evans Kipchumba (20:25.40) claimed the men's crown.

The Colonels will have a two-week break from competition before competing in the McNeese Cowboy Stampede on Sept. 29.

To stay up to date with the Nicholls cross country squads, follow the teams on twitter @Nicholls_XCTF.