With their outdoor season getting underway this past Saturday at the University of New Orleans Invitational in New Orleans, the Lady Colonel track and field squad is starting the season with a youth-laden roster.The squad’s first meet of the outdoor season at Jackson State in Mississippi was cancelled, so the Lady Colonels began their season with the UNO Invitational.
In New Orleans, freshman Anastasia Jones highlighted the Lady Colonel performances with a fifth place finish in the 5,000-meter run. Jones clocked in with a time of 20:21.98.
Additionally, the Lady Colonels had two more top 10 finishes in freshman Allison Zeringue and sophomore Jamie Johnson. Zeringue finished seventh in the high jump, leaping 1.50 meters, while Johnson recorded an eighth place finish in the shot put with a throw of 10.54 meters.
Other participants for the Lady Colonels included freshman Dominique Harris in the 200-meter and long jump, sophomore Billie Anne Potter in the 200-meter and 400-meter, senior Shannon Cox in the 400-meter and 800-meter, junior Butler County Community College transfer Wongani Phiri in the 800-meter and 1500-meter, junior Naomi Quisenberry in the 1500-meter, freshman Jodi Dufrene in the 1500-meter and junior Lacy Picou and sophomore Jessica Alexie in the discus.
Head track and field coach Agapus Amo said despite his team being young, they are improving, which will be beneficial in the future.
“The majority of my team are young people,” Amo said. “They are freshmen, and they are growing up, and (that) means that in the future they will be able to compete in the conference level … Some of them, they are just young freshmen, and they are still improving.”
In the running events, Amo has the challenge of trying to replace senior standout Christina Sergi. Besides the young talent on the team, Amo said he would have to recruit some athletes who can be a little bit more competitive in the Southland Conference next year.
Most of Amo’s distance runners in the 800-meter and up are the same individuals who run cross-country and indoor track. These include senior Kim Prestenbach, Quisenberry, Dufrene, freshman Nichole Trice, senior Jenny Willie, Cox, Jones and freshman Rebecca Politz, along with the recent addition of Phiri.
“She’s a little bit mature,” Amo said of Phiri. “Maybe she will be able to help Kim in some event. She might be able to help in 800-and 1500-meter.”
As far as who will be running the short sprints, Amo said both Cox and Potter will handle these duties. They will both be running the 400-meter hurdle, but in preparation for this event, Amo has each running events like the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter dashes to improve their overall speed.
In the field events, Amo will have both Willie and freshman Jacqueline Sanders pole-vaulting. During the indoor season, Sanders broke the overall pole vault record for the Lady Colonels with a jump of 9 feet 4 inches, passing Willie, the previous record holder.
Harris will triple jump and Zeringue might join her as well.
Throwing both the shot put and discus for the Lady Colonels will be Johnson, Picou and Alexie.
Johnson also recorded a personal best in the shot put during the indoor season with a throw of 36-4 in the conference indoor championship. Amo said she has really improved and, being a sophomore, still has more time to improve.
He said Picou was throwing the shot put about 33 feet during the indoor season. Even though the discus is her specialty, Alexie will also throw shot put during the outdoor season.
As far as competition in conference, Amo said the Texas schools really stick out.
“The Texas schools are very strong like the University of Texas in San Antonio, and then UTA-Arlington is a big school,” Amo said. “It’s a challenge, and there are schools like Texas State. They are a bigger school. I would say they have potential and so many athletes.”
In expressing what she believes the team can accomplish this season, Sanders said she hopes everyone will come to practice and give everything they have.
“My hope is that as a team our people would actually become more of a team and everyone go to practice and try their best,” Sanders said.
