TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Bolstered by yet-another career-best performance out of Elsa Rijpstra, the Nicholls State University cross country program concluded the team's non-conference training with a competitive showing at the FSU XC Invitational, clinching sixth overall on the women's side along with ninth for the men Friday morning at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

"The women executed our team race plan really well, just getting out aggressive but still able to move through the second lap," head cross country coach Stefanie Slekis said. "Elsa went through the first split about 40th and worked her way up to 17th and ran with a really strong front group. Overall, though, the woman ran very tough on a hilly course so I'm excited to see the impact this race will have on our prep with just 10 days till the Southland meet, especially since the last two weeks of training have gone so well. Megan [Nevlud] and Lara [Reifers] looked tremendously better than even just 11 days ago at our season opener and the same goes for Skyler [Goodman] and Eleana [Callejas], so I'm confident we can get to where we want to be as a team in order to finish in the top half of the conference."

Rijpstra wrapped up the morning with numerous personal and program accolades, clocking a 22:06.1 mark for a 17th overall finish and sixth on the all-time Nicholls women's cross country leaderboard, outpacing her own previous-best at the 6k distance by almost a full minute. Meanwhile, freshman Megan Nevlud impressed in her first-ever 6k at the collegiate level behind a 42nd overall placement while teammate Lara Reifers cruised in just behind her at 48th with a personal record of her own (23:53.6). Sophomore Skyler Goodman and senior Eleana Callejas closed out the Red & Gray scoring runners with back-to-back finishes at 73rd and 74th, respectively.

The final team scoring saw the women concluding the meet with 145 total points, good for sixth out of the eight competing programs in the Gold Race with national power Colorado claiming the win at 22 points.

For the men, sophomore Olari Livingston and senior Caleb Calderon paced the Red & Gray with consecutive placements at 66th and 67th, respectively, finishing just under three seconds apart. Junior Dustin Worley logged 80th on the final leaderboard while freshmen Tharon Blanchard and Dustin Wager captured 81st and 86th in their first-ever collegiate 8k.

On the final team scoreboard, the Red & Gray ranked ninth in a field of 10 programs, closing out the day with 246 points while fellow Southland programs New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana notched first and second, respectively.

UP NEXT
With the non-conference schedule officially in the books, the Colonels aim to impress heading into the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships, slated for less than two weeks from the Florida State trip on Monday, Feb. 15 in Hammond, La.

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