Freshmen Dakota and Brea Goodman are not only sisters but also twin cross country runners for the Colonels. The Goodman sisters come to Nicholls from Wisconsin, their home state.

Brea, a three-time MVP for the Reedsburg High cross country and track and field programs also qualified for the state championship as a junior and placed fifth in the state as a senior.

Dakota is a four-time Wisconsin state championship qualifier and claimed runner-up honors at the state sectional meet. She also earned first team All Badger North Conference and all-state honors.

Both Dakota and Brea earned top five finishes in their first career start in the 29th Annual Southern Miss. Invitational.

Right before a rainy practice, both twins took the time to talk about their upcoming season and transition to Nicholls.

Q: When running, do you two try to run together?

Dakota: “Yeah.”

Brea: “Yeah, mostly every run we do.”

Dakota: “Mostly every long run, we try to keep tempo.”

Q: Does it help you two run better?

Brea: “We push each other, and we do better because of that.”

Q: How much time do you two spend together?

Dakota: “All the time!”

Both: “We study together; we run together.”

Brea: “Mostly everyday.”

Q: What are some differences that separate you from each other?

Dakota: “She’s better than me; that is definitely something she possesses at times. She has more drive than I do when running.”

Brea: “Our likes in class, our dislikes in classes, the difference in our friends.”

Q: The team has a very good recruiting class this year; does that add any pressure?

Brea: “Yeah, a little bit.”

Dakota: “A little pressure, yeah. What its like to do good, how it is to do good, what’s expected of us as freshmen and what we need to hit at times. Also academics and our GPA’s, so yeah, there is a lot of pressure on us.”

Q: What are some things you two want to work on individually?

Dakota: “I would like to work on my pace. I think that I need to go a lot harder during the race. I also would like to work on the last half of my race. That tends to be the weakest part, and it kills my time.”

Brea: “My first mile could be a lot stronger. I hold it in on the last mile. My last mile is not as strong as I want it to be. I just have to work on that part.”

Q: Have you two decided what majors you two will choose?

Dakota: “Psychology, we both want to be psychiatrists.”

Q: What are some difference you two notice between high school and college?

Dakota: “For track and cross-country, definitely pace. Academically…”

Both: (laughter)

Dakota: Having to always be on top of things. Studying way more, reading way more and having to balance running and school. That has been a huge, huge jump.

Q: How excited are you two to start the season?

Brea: We are very excited to get the season started. Our main sport is track; we are more excited for track, but we love cross-country because it builds our endurance for track. We are pretty excited because we don’t know what to expect out of our races. Going to college from high school is different so we will see what to expect.

Freshman Dakota Goodman is a distance runner for cross country. (Misty McElroy)