BATON ROUGE, La. -- With the winter holiday season wrapped up, the Nicholls State University track & field program aims to kickoff the new year on a major high note at the LSU Purple Tiger, squaring off against 12 opposing squads from the across the region -- including a trio of fellow Southland teams -- on Friday, Jan. 10 at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse in Baton Rouge, La.

WHAT: The LSU Purple Tiger
WHEN: Friday, Jan. 10 | All Day
WHERE: Carl Maddox Fieldhouse | Baton Rouge, La.
MEDIA: Live Stats | Meet Schedule

LSU PURPLE TIGER PARTICIPANTS
LSU (host)
Nicholls
Grambling
Hinds Community College
New Orleans
Northwestern State
Southeastern Louisiana
Southern
Southern-New Orleans
Tulane
Louisiana-Monroe
Louisiana-Lafayette
Xavier (La.)

For third-year head coach Stefanie Slekis, the LSU Purple Tiger serves as an important measuring stick as the program works deeper into the indoor season and, eventually, the outdoor competitions later in March. Within both schedules, the Virginia native denotes a specific design to boost performance over the long run, including a number of local and Southland appearances as well as one overnight meet built into both the indoor and outdoor slates.

"Indoor and Outdoor we have focused on having strong local (LSU) and Southland (McNeese, Southeastern) competitions in addition to a pair of key overnight meets (Samford Open & Victor Lopez Classic) for a high level competition where we plan to see personal bests from everyone and have our goals set on breaking Nicholls All-Time top 10 Performer's marks," Slekis said. "An important update this year is having our men's team back on campus early in addition to our women's team to compete at LSU this Friday, which should enable us to see better performances by the Conference Championship with an additional three weeks to compete and train together as a team."

Further, the addition of freshman Amiya Matthews to the women's roster has allowed assistant coach Courtney Lord to focus in on her specialty: multi-events. As a former Southland hep- and pentathlete standout herself, Lord offers notable insight to competing in the world of multiple events, which ranges from javelin throw and long jump to the 100m hurdles and 800m run. As such, both Lord and Matthews will make individual trips during both the indoor (Samford Multi) and outdoor (SFA Heptathlon) seasons to meets catering the unique competitions.

"A new addition to our indoor and outdoor schedules this season is the Indoor Samford Multi outdoor SFA Heptathlon, both of which will feature Amiya Matthews traveling with assistant coach Courtney Lord," Slekis continued. "Coach Lord was an exceptional pentathlete and heptathlete at Sam Houston State and I am excited for freshman Amiya Matthews to have these great competition opportunities. Coach Lord did an exceptional job with our sprints/hurdles/high jump/long jump/Javelin student-athletes last season and I look forward to seeing coach Amiya in her specialty event this year."

Looking ahead to Friday's meet in Baton Rouge, Slekis points out just how crucial the next few weeks of training will be for her student-athletes and hopes the high-level competition at LSU will kickstart the Colonels as they open the 2020 track & field season.

"The LSU Purple Tiger meet is the perfect opportunity for our student-athletes to test themselves after training on their own the past three weeks during the holiday season," Slekis concluded. "The beginning of this week also kicked off a three week training block where we will be able to get together in Thibodaux before classes start. With how quickly the Indoor Track & Field season will go it is crucial to be back on campus and training together. I am excited to see where everyone's fitness is in a race situation at LSU and the progress we can make together before our next team competition at McNeese later in January."

For more details, check out the complete 2019 men's track & field schedule HERE and the women's schedule HERE.

COMPLETE PROGRAM BREAKDOWN
Schedule | Men's Roster | Women's Roster

UP NEXT
After kicking off the season in style at the LSU Purple Tiger, a majority of the Red & Gray program have a few weeks before hitting the road again for official competition, traveling west to Lake Charles, La. for the McNeese Indoor Invite on Friday, Jan. 31. Meanwhile, both Matthews and assistant coach Lord will only receive a few days rest before heading off for the Samford Multis on Thursday, Jan. 16 in Birmingham, Ala.

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).