Strawberry Relays provide chance for Nicholls track teams to experiment a bit

With only two meets remaining in the outdoor season before the Southland Conference Championship, the Nicholls men’s and women’s track teams will use Friday’s Strawberry Relays in Hammond for a final bit of experimentation.

“We have some distance runners doing the steeplechase for the first time,” informed Nicholls track coach Stefanie Slekis.

Among the runners who will be taking part in the steeplechase are Luke Futey and Chase Walker for the men and Sophia Harrison for the women.

“I don’t think Sophia will do it at the conference meet,” Slekis said. “We just want to do it for fun this weekend as opposed to running a 1500 and 800. She’s gonna run the 5K at the Rice meet. In conference, she’ll probably run 10k, 5k. She just wants to get on an all-time list. She’s done it once before, but not very well. She could do a lot better; I think. We’ve just barely worked on it for her.”

A few other Nicholls runners will wait to take part in their first steeplechase at the J. Fred Duckett Twilight hosted by Rice University in Houston on April 20.

“Issy Rivault and Ty Frazier, I’m pretty excited about what they might be able to do in it,” said Slekis. “They’re gonna wait and do it at the Rice meet which is more of how the conference championship will feel with how crowded it will be in the steeple, which has a big difference because you’re hurdling with more people around you over the barriers. We’re having Ty and Issy do it there just to get another week of fitness under their belt. I think they are people that will probably actually be doing it at the conference meet.”

There’s a bit of strategy in having Futey participate in the steeplechase at the Strawberry Relays.

“We don’t want to give up his opportunity to run the 5k in the Rice meet, so what’s why he’s doing it here,” Slekis said.

Also doing something different at the Strawberry Relays will be Cherie Neal.

“Cherie’s going to run the hurdles in the 200 and high jump,” Slekis noted.

The plan is for Neal to participate in the heptathlon at the conference championship.

In the case of Nia Maye, she will revert to her usual events after running the 400 meters at the LSU meet.

“Nia is back in the 100 and the 200,” said Slekis.

The upcoming meets, Slekis said, will help to serv as a barometer as to where the Colonels are coming off their most recent training block.

“I think it’ll be fun to see where we’re at after this weekend and then going into Rice you really have a clear benchmark of all the fitness you’ve accumulated since (the) indoor (season),” the Nicholls coach said. “We should be feeling pretty good by that meet. People are going to be running some of their main events. That’s when you get to see the conference list and kind of what it’s looking like and make those decisions for what we really are going to focus on racing at the conference meet for some of those people that are in between two events. Are we going to do both of them? Are we going to do one of them within our team?”

Then it comes down to finalizing the game plan.

“Part of it is just based on where we’re at each event, but then also what’s the conference looking like, which is why we’re running some people in the steeplechase in this meet and the next meet to see if that’s an opportunity for some people to be more successful in the conference based on what that list looks like right now,” said Slekis.