THIBODAUX, La. --  After a few weeks of rest, the Nicholls State University women's and men's cross country teams will return to action across state lines at the Arturo Barrios Invitational hosted by Texas A&M University on Friday, Oct. 17.
 
The action from Dale Watts Cross Country Course will begin with the men's 8K at 8:30 a.m. followed by the women's 6K at 9:15 a.m. The loaded field will feature 38 teams including seven from the Southland Conference.
 
Nicholls head coach Stefanie Slekis spoke about how the last few weeks of training has been and what it means to compete in a staked field to end the regular season.
 
"We are excited to head to college station for our biggest meet of the season. Both our men's and women's teams have been training really well together since our home meet. We are excited to see several Southland schools that we haven't seen yet as well as several NCAA South Central regionally ranked teams. In addition to teams regionally ranked in the other regions. Several of our women set huge personal bests at the home meet from 40 seconds to over two minutes so I am excited to see what they can do over the 6k distance. For the men this will be the debut 8k for all our freshmen, but they are ready for a great showing. We have seen great improvement for both our newcomers and returners especially increasing our volume in intervals the past few weeks, so we are excited to see that work come together Friday," Slekis said.
 
The Red & Gray are coming off strong performances in their 7th Annual Nicholls XC Invitational as multiple runners within both squads set personal best times.
 
The women's squad secured the victory in the 5K behind securing eight of the top 15 times in the race as multiple Colonels set personal bests and finished under 21 minutes. Isabelle Seijhouwer, who outpaced her previous personal best by over a minute and a half won the race with a personal best time of 18:44. Payton Theriot 19:04) finished third, Gracie Daigle (19:29) placed seventh, Ana Letran Cartes (19:50) placed ninth, Kassidy Besson (19:58) finished 10th, Kalin Baratka (20:13) placed 11th, while Avery Guidry (20:37), and Gabriella O'Neal (20:46).
 
The men's unit was led by Mason Heffernan whole placed eighth with a time of 21:37. Brady Sins (21:58) and William Nizzo (22:04) were the next two Colonels to cross the finish line to claim 12th and 13th place, respectively. Michael Keller (22:09) and Brison Legnon (22:24) rounded out the Colonels top 20 marks finishing in 15th and 19th place.