FRISCO, Texas -- Tuesday afternoon, the Southland Conference announced Nicholls State University junior Elsa Rijpstra as the league's Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week, a second for both the Dutch import as well as fifth-year head coach Stefanie Slekis.

After putting together a strong start in the season opener two weeks ago in spite of a couple notable setbacks due to Hurricane Ida (sudden schedule change & lack of running spikes), Rijpstra impressed in the program's return to relative normalcy at the Louisiana Tech Mook 4 Invitational, scoring second place overall within the individual field behind a 14:32.4 mark, good for a personal best at the 4k distance. Further, the junior's silver medal placement served as a major buoy for the Colonels on the team leaderboard, vaulting Nicholls to a second-place finish amongst a highly-competitive five-squad meet.

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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For more information on Colonels Track & Field/Cross Country, follow the team on Twitter (@Nicholls_XCTF), Instagram (@nichollstfxc) and like their Facebook page (Nicholls Athletics).