BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Nicholls State University track program wrapped up its indoor season at the Southland Conference Championships, and Elsa Rijpstra highlighted the event with a school record time in the 5000-meter to claim a gold medal. 

Rijpstra clocked a 17:25.06 in the race, edging the McNeese duo of Pamela Kosgei and Aurelia Jepkorir by less than a second. 

Also for the women, Omo Oboh had the fastest time in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries but clipped a hurdle in the finals.

"Our team becomes stronger outdoors and ultimately we have great fitness to build off of," said head coach Stefanie Slekis. "A series of unfortunate events doesn't define this championship, as we still recorded our highest point total since 2016."

Preston Whisenhunt also scored the first individual points for Nicholls men's track & field since the program was discontinued in 2004, a big step as we continue to rebuild the program. 

QUOTES FROM COACH SLEKIS

On Elsa Rijpstra's performance
Elsa winning the women's 5000m was a culmination of over two years of work we have put in together. Her confidence was there since last year when she led a large portion of the 5000m and this year, it was amazing to see that her training and confidence combined was enough to continue to press down the pace from the front to secure her victory. She then toughed out a strong women's 3000m field running her second best time in her career to secure an additional team point after anchoring the women's distance medley relay to sixth-place the night before. The theme for our women's team the remainder of the meet was being tough after having hiccups.

On Amiya Matthews
Amiya rallied from clipping a hurdle to start her pentathlon to throw a new lifetime personal best by over a half a meter in the shot put (11.22m) moving her to No. 6 all-time performer for Nicholls and her best finish, 6th, in the Indoor Pentathlon at the Southland Conference Championships.

On Omo Oboh and the 4x400 relay team
Omo entered the women's 60m hurdle final as the No. 1 seed after lowering her school record in the prelim. She got out well, but clipped a hurdle in the middle of the race and lost her opportunity for her first individual title. She rallied back, leading off the women's 4 x 400m relay to a sixth-place finish and No. 3 all-time performance with senior Hailey Alcorn recording a season's best anchor split after the heartbreak of missing the 400m final by .04 the day before. Nia Maye and Kiara Bethley also recorded season's best splits on the relay. 

On Elaina Hansen
Elaina became the third-best performer indoors in the women's 5000m in school history even after the confusion of kicking a lap early when she heard the bell, stopping, and restarting. It was a tough mistake to move past since she had just moved into eighth place at that time in the race to try and secure a team point, but she came back the next day to set a new personal best in the 3000m.

On Lara Reifers
Lara positioned herself well in the top 3 in the mile final before being stepped on right after 650m, falling to the ground, being spiked in the back, and still finishing in her second-best mile time ever and came back for 13 second personal best in the 3000m moving her to No. 7 All-Time. 

On the men's team
Preston Whisenhunt had another breakthrough setting a personal best to make the 800m final. Randy Canady had a big day setting a personal best in the mile to miss the final by just over a second, ran equal to his personal best in the 800m prelim, and anchored the distance medley relay to our best time since the men's team was reinstated in 2019.