Cross country competes in conference championships tomorrow

The Nicholls State University cross country program nears the end of the season with the
Southland Conference championships in Abilene, Texas this weekend.

Head coach Stefanie Slekis said they are excited for the competition, and many of her players
will take in this new experience.

“For three of our 10 athletes, it will be their first Southland Conference cross country
championship,” Slekis said. “Lu [Lucija Barac] and Taylor [Douglas] have already competed at
other sports in the Southland Conference championship, but for half our team it’s the first time
they’ve ever been to a Southland Conference championship.”

Senior runner Lucija Barac spent the first two seasons of her college career playing volleyball at
Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo. before arriving at Nicholls in 2015. She played volleyball for
the Colonels for two seasons before joining the cross country program this year.

Redshirt junior runner Taylor Douglas arrived at Nicholls in 2014 and played for the soccer
team. She redshirted her freshman season due to injury, but returned to play for the Colonels for
the next two seasons, and then joined the cross country program in 2017.

Slekis said this meet will be her first one as a head coach, and she reminisced on past cross
country experiences after her college career ended.

“It’s fun to be going back to the Southland Conference championships as a head coach. I got my
start in college coaching as a graduate assistant at McNeese State. My first conference meet not
as a student-athlete, but as a coach, was in the fall of 2011.”

The Southland Conference championships take place tomorrow, Oct. 27 with the women running
a 6K at 8:30 a.m. and the men running an 8K at 9:30 a.m. The race will be streamed on Facebook
Live at facebook.com/southlandsports.