THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University men's and women's track and field teams will begin the 2026 indoor season in Baton Rouge at the LSU Purple Tiger on Friday, Jan. 16.
 
Nicholls will be competing inside Carl Maddox Field House against in-state foes Dillard, Louisiana, New Orleans, Southeastern, Southern, ULM, and Xavier (LA). The field will also include Lamar and Meridian CC.
 
Nicholls Track and Field head coach Stefanie Slekis gave her thoughts on how the team has been training and how they have improved.
 
"We are really excited about opening our season at LSU," Slekis said. "Our teams have been back training together since January 5th and we see the improvement from our fall training and are ready to be pretty aggressive in our opener."
 
Slekis spoke about how the first meet will challenge the team and how that can elevate them moving forward.
 
"Several of our student-athletes will be competing in distances we don't see at the conference championship so it will be a great opportunity to test ourselves and lay a foundation for our bigger goals we have later this season. There will be a 600, 1k, and 2k compared to seeing the 800, Mile, and 3k at the conference championship. We have several people targeting school records and all-time top ten performances," Slekis said.
 
Lastly, Slekis spoke about Jinte Braas and Andrea Tirado who will be traveling to Birmingham for the Samford Invite on the same day.
 
"Jinte & Andrea have a great opportunity at Samford for their pentathlon. They have had a great fall and Coach Cameron Bolt is excited to see them start the season with a full multi after the progress they both made through the fall training," Slekis said.