RUSTON, La. -- Fueled by a pair of high-powered individual performances from Elsa Rijpstra and Elaina Hansen, the Nicholls State University cross country program composed a competitive outing in just the team's second meet of the young 2021 campaign, fighting for a second overall finish on the women's side while the men closed out at sixth Saturday morning at the Louisiana Tech Farm in Ruston, La.

"Our women had a great day and did an excellent job of getting out aggressively like we planned," Slekis said. "Elaina showed the progress she has made in training the past two weeks, as she led the entire field through the first loop and half of the course and Elsa ran a smart, strong race to end up as our top finisher. I'm excited to get back to Thibodaux and have our team get back in the solid routine we had after our training camp back in August. Our men's team knows they're better than how we raced today, but they're putting in the work now and racing on tired legs so we can be at our best in six weeks."

On the women's side, Rijpstra continues to serve as the Red & Gray's primary pacemaker, scoring second place overall within the individual field behind a 14:32.4 mark, good for a personal best at the 4k distance. Meanwhile, the transfer Hansen along with junior Myah Robichaux both managed to secure their second consecutive top 10 showings of the season, setting new personal bests for the distance en route to fifth- and 10th-place finishes. As for the final two scoring runners for the Red & Gray, senior Emily Blanchard and junior Summer Seal notched 22nd and 28th, respectively.

For the final team scoreboard, the women concluded the meet with 51 total points, good for second out of the five competing programs, as Louisiana-Monroe narrowly outpaced the Colonels in the final standings behind all five scoring runners finishing inside the top 11.

For the men, transfers Randy Canady and Miles Kanipe led the Nicholls pack with finishes at 14th and 22nd, respectively, while senior Dustin Worley worked his way up to 32nd on the final leaderboard. The freshman duo of Timmy Seiler and Jake Fabacher, both competing in just their second-ever collegiate meet, wrapped up the Red & Gray scoring runners at 39th and 42nd overall.

On the final team leaderboard, the men ranked sixth in a field of six programs as the squad compiled 115 total points, trailing fifth Grambling by just three and fourth Northwestern State by just five while host Louisiana Tech captured the victory.

UP NEXT
With the results for the Louisiana Tech Mook 4 Invitational officially in the books, the Red & Gray return to Thibodaux for their lone home meet of the season, hosting the Nicholls XC Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Manning Fields.

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