NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The Nicholls State University cross country program generated a positive start to the 2019 campaign Friday evening at the UNO XC Opener, scoring a second-place overall finish for the women's squad and fourth in the men's side. The Colonels saw three of their women's runners --
Elsa Rijpstra, Augusta Marie Grønberg Christensen &
Skyler Goodman -- rank in the event's top ten while freshman
Olari Livingston managed to scored at 15th overall for the men, pacing the younger group on the course.
The performances by the freshmen trio of Rijpstra, Grønberg Christensen and Goodman seriously boosted the final numbers for Nicholls, racking up third, fifth and ninth, respectively, on the final leaderboard. Sophomore
Lara Reifers, meanwhile, placed just outside the top ten at 12th overall with freshman
Willow Johnson rounded out the scoring runners at 18th. Despite not factoring into the final scoring decision, a five-woman team composed of
Sarah Glick,
Myah Robichaux,
Julia Garcia Verges,
Eleana Callejas and
Faith Keter slid in at ranks 20 through 24, outpacing Southland opponent New Orleans' fifth-best runner.
The final team scoring saw the women falter by just five points (47-to-42) to in-state rival Tulane while knocking off New Orleans (third), Louisiana-Lafayette (fourth) and Loyola-New Orleans (fifth).
"For our women, we're really excited to have three in the top ten," head cross country coach
Stefanie Slekis said. "We were really close to beating out Tulane, but we were able to accomplish our goal of seeing our top ten in action. Purely the fact that ten of our runners finished ahead of New Orleans' No. 5 speaks to our depth, and that's going to be a huge strength for us as we prepare for the 6,000m over the course of the next couple weeks. Overall, the women exceeded expectations in terms of depth, and we know what we can do better in terms of not being as aggressive up front and conserving energy."
Meanwhile, the men's squad was anchored primarily by Livingston, who secured a 15th-place finish on the overall leaderboard, and sophomore
Tyler Granger, who slid in just behind him at 18th. Feshman
Preston Whisenhunt and sophomore
Dustin Worley managed to capture 22nd and 23rd, respectively, while freshman
Octavio Vasquez-Tilley closed out the scoring runners for the Colonels at 29th. Outside the Red & Gray scoring group, sophomore
Cameron Carter along with freshmen
Hunter Batt and
Eric Brown also posted strong performances to open the season.
For team scoring, the Colonels put together an overall fourth-place finish, falling behind New Orleans (first), Tulane (second) and Loyola-New Orleans (third) while outpacing Louisiana-Lafayette.
"On the men's side, Olari [Livingston] ran aggressive early and he was able to finish top 15, so we were happy to see him hit his goal there," Slekis continued. "In general, we were pleased with how everyone ran, but we've got lots of work ahead and all of them will get to race at Southern next week, which will be big for building our overall race experience."
UP NEXT
With the official opener at New Orleans concluded, Nicholls makes ready for a quick turnaround as the squad shifts focus to the Southern Jaguars XC Invitational, set for Saturday, Sept. 7 in Baton Rouge, La.
STAY SOCIAL
For more information on Colonels Track & Field/Cross Country, follow the team on Twitter (
@Nicholls_XCTF), Instagram (
@geauxcolonels) and like their Facebook page (
Nicholls Athletics).
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