The Nicholls State indoor track team has only had two meets this year, but they have managed to break or tie records in both. The record setting started at the Purple Tiger Indoor Classic held at LSU Jan. 13. Junior sprinter Katrina Carter set two school records as she ran a 7.76 in the 60-meter dash and finished with a time of 25.89 in the 200-meter dash. Trionne Burrell held both records since 1999.
During the Leonard Hilton Memorial held in Houston, Texas Jan. 19, Carter finished with a new personal best time of 1:00.55 in the 400-meter dash, which moved her to second all-time on Nicholls list.
However Carter was not the only Colonel breaking records. Freshman Rahjanaye Bailey and Chelsea Dockrey also carved their names into Nicholls’ record book. Bailey set a new school record in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.69. Dockrey tied the school record with a height of 5-02.25 in the high jump.
Head coach Scott Williamson said to have freshmen do so well so soon is impressive.
“This is their starting point,” Williamson said. “Rahjanaye (Bailey) ran a 9.69, and we hope to get her closer to a nine flat by the end of the year. Some of the other freshmen are struggling with technique but they should be right there with the rest by the end of the year.”
This year’s team returns a number of athletes from last year’s team.
Sophomore javelin thrower Leslie Bourgeois, junior sprinter Latasha Bishop, sophomore pole-vaulter Keri Fremin, junior sprinter Dominique Harris and sophomore distance runner Charlotte Everhardt join a plethora of new faces on the team this season.
Besides Dockery and Bailey, this year’s team has a number of newcomers joining the team. Freshmen newcomers include sprinters Alyce Peters, Tiffany Nall, Ashley Carpenter and Jarina Guilbeau, thrower Caitlin Keehn, distance runners Lauren Bazunu, Heather Martin, Kadi Whisnant and Micaela Guidry and hurdler Sabrina Henkes.
These ladies join junior distance runner Christa Perue, junior sprinters Eunice Jepkogei and La-Nation McCray and sophomore sprinter Nicoya Hutcherson.
“We are still a smaller team right now, but we are much improved from last year,” Williamson said. “We’ll get better as the year goes on.”
Now that the Lady Colonels have two meets under their belt, they can start preparing for the Southland Conference meet Feb. 16-17 in Houston.
“We’re using the indoor season to help us prepare for the outdoor season next semester,” Williamson said. “We are going to compete every weekend as hard as we can and we will just have to see what happens.”
The Lady Colonels’ next meet is the Bayou Bengal Invite tomorrow at LSU followed by the Houston All-Comers Feb. 2-3 and the University of Houston Run Sport Feb. 10.
