Women’s track makes big strides at indoor championships

After preparing for the event all season, the Nicholls State University women’s track and field team competed and excelled in the Southland Conference (SLC) Indoor Track and Field Championships this Wednesday and Thursday at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

HARD WORK PAID OFF
Redshirt junior Taylor Douglas and Senior Emily Werenskiold competed in the 800 meter run on Wednesday and achieved personal records finishing at 2 minutes, 34.11 seconds and 2:37.46, respectively. Douglas shaved five seconds off of her previous race time while Werenskiold made a nine second improvement.

Douglas said the faster stars at this meet helped her and Werenskiold improve on their split times.

“Everybody went out a lot faster than they did in the other races. I know Emily’s split was crazy fast. Her first 200 split and my first 200 split were a lot faster than our last race, so we went out a lot faster than we usually do. The pace is a lot different,” Douglas said. “With me and Emily, we just keep progressing. With me, I feel like I’m just going to get better and better.”

Aside from the improvements in the 800 meter, the Colonels performed well in many other events at the SLC Championships. Adding another personal best was sophomore Maerys Joseph in the 400 meter.

Her 58.16 second time bumped her from seventh to third place in Nicholls program history for women’s track and field in the event. Senior Lucija Barac joined Joseph in the 400 meter and also achieved a new personal record.

“I’m extremely proud of myself for improving in the 400 meter indoor throughout this season,” Joseph said. “I’m glad to be on the performance list now for both my indoor and outdoor 400 meter times. Hopefully by this time next year, I will be ranked number one on the indoor 400 meter performance list.”

Senior Alondriah Brown added another success story to the two-day event when she earned a new personal record in the women’s 60 meter. Brown is also a member of the 4×400 relay team which includes Joseph and seniors Callie Skull and Emily Sauce. This relay team earned a season-best time finishing at 4:00.58.

According to Joseph, although this was the first time these four women ran in a relay together, their individual strengths all contributed to the success they found on the track.

“I believe all the hard work paid off entering into this championship meet,” Joseph said. “This was the first time the four of us actually ran a relay together, but I knew that these ladies and I run pretty good 400 times. I was excited to see what the outcome would be.”

Skull, Sauce, fellow senior Hannah Naquin and freshman Eleana Callejas made up the women’s distance medley (DMR) and took eighth place with their 12:23.40 race time. This marked a 22 second improvement from the last time these women ran the same race 12 days ago.

Aside from the events they are familiar with, Naquin and Callejas also competed in the 3000 meter race for the very first time at the SLC Championships.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
Naquin has been steadily improving her mile time over the course of the season. Only a few weeks ago in the team’s most recent meet, she improved her personal best to 5:12.79 seconds. After competing in a mile qualifier with about 20 competitors at the SLC Championships, she cut seven more seconds off her record when she finished with the impressive time of 5:5.46 seconds. This allowed her to qualify for the mile in which she took fourth place overall.

After this race, Naquin also jumped up to the third-best mile time spot in Nicholls program history because she managed to get another personal best at 5:2.80 seconds.

After the meet was over, Naquin said she never would have thought she could keep cutting her mile time down to where it stands now. She said her race strategy allowed her to execute at the SLC Championships.

“Coach talked to me about race strategy because we knew everyone was going to be fast. She told me if I can keep up with them, keep up with the group,” Naquin said. “I did exactly what I wanted to do, and the last lap and a half, I was like sprinting my absolute hardest; it was awesome. I crossed the finish line and I just sat down. It was a fun race.”

Naquin said that a lot of people on the team were able to reach new personal records at the meet, and that is exactly what they were striving for at the SLC Championships.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Colonels will make a quick transition from the indoor track season to the outdoor track season with their first meet scheduled for March 10. They are scheduled to compete at McNeese State University for the McNeese Cowboy Relays in Lake Charles.