Nicholls State’s cross country teams put forth an impressive showing at the 29th Annual Southern Miss. Invitational Friday in Hattiesburg, Miss.Freshmen twin sisters Dakota and Brea Goodman both finished in the top five, and junior Lauren Jones finished in seventh place to lead the women’s squad to a second-place finish.
Jordan Reed, an E.D. White graduate, placed 10th to lead the way for the Colonels, as the men finished fourth overall.
University of West Alabama won the men’s title with 36 points. Xavier University was second at 48 points, Jackson State third at 63 points and Nicholls State fourth with 69 points, well ahead of fifth-place University of Mobile, which had 127 points.
Southern Miss.’ women won the meet with 40 points, followed by Nicholls State with 44. West Alabama was third with 75 points.
New head coach Matthew Esche was impressed with the showing of the teams in their first meet.
“I think that on our men’s side we did a great job of showing that we have a very solid one-through-four pack,” Esche said. “It was only 16 seconds difference one-through-four, which is outstanding. The guys did a great job working as a team and I think we’re only going to get stronger as the year goes on.”
Reed was just 36 seconds behind for a top-five finish as he clocked in at 22:58.27 on the four-mile course for a 10th-place finish.
Reed’s teammates just missed out on top-10 finishes of their own, with Joseph Fryou finishing 12th, Ross Mullooly 13th and Tyler Folse 14th.
The highlight of the day for the Lady Colonels was the performances of Dakota and Brea Goodman, who finished with times of 18:54.57 and 18:55.15, respectively. Jones clocked in at 19:32.22.
Esche feels confident that his girls could have possibly won the meet if not for injuries, including junior Jessica McLoud, who missed the meet because of a knee injury. However, the girls’ ability to follow the race plan allowed the Colonels to finish second and please their head coach.
“The girls did a great job following our race plan,” Esche said. “They didn’t go out too hard. Southern Miss. went out very hard. We followed our race plan to a T. They executed the way I wanted them to execute. We were a little shorthanded with Jessica McLeod resting some knee injuries, but if we had raced hard and inserted a healthy Jess, we could have easily won this meet. I’m content with where we are at, and I think this bodes well for our season.”
The men and women’s next meet is Sept. 19 when they head to Mississippi State for the MSU Invitational Tournament.
