Several Nicholls athletes manage to score points in SLC track championship to end season

The Nicholls women’s and men’s track teams had a few finishes high enough in events to earn team points in the recently concluded Southland Conference Outdoor Championship on Holloway Field and Ley Track in Houston.

The top finisher for Nicholls was Sophia Harrison, who came in fifth in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 41:32.16 to garner four points for her team.

Participating in the heptathlon for the first time this season, two freshmen, Cherie Neal and Jinte Brass placed sixth and seventh, respectively. That earned Neal three points and Brass two points.

Neal finished with two third place finishes in heptathlon events, and Braas had one third-place finish and a fourth-place finish.

The result for Neal gave her second place all-time for Nicholls, and Braas third. Andrea Tirado, another freshman, placed 10th in the event to put her No. 4 on the all-time Nicholls list.

The Nicholls 4 x 100 women’s relay team consisting of Danya Satterfield, Neal, Amiya Matthews, and Nia Maye finished seventh with a time of 47.74 to earn two points for the Colonels.

“The women’s 4 x 100 came out and scored. Nia, who’s one of our older ladies, ran really well in the 4 x 100 with Danya and Cherie, two freshmen, and Amiya Matthews one of our fifth year (runners),” said Nicholls coach Stefanie Slekis. “It was fun for them to get out there. It was the first time we ran it all year.

“Nia led off our 4 x 400 that just missed scoring. She ran like :56 on her split, which is incredible. It was fun for her for a senior outing.”

The Nicholls women finished with 11 points. The top women’s team was Northwestern State with 182.5.

For the men, Gavin Windham placed sixth in the javelin with a toss of 53.43 to earn three points.

“Gavin Windham came back after having a rough go at the last meet, threw another big (personal record) 53 meters and scored in the javelin,” said Slekis. So that was our men’s highest score since I’ve been here with the program getting reinstated.

Amari Godette placed seventh in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.53 to earn two points.

“He got a little bit of a shuffling with guy next to him that the other guy’s arm hit him, and I think that cost him being like third or fourth place, but still he had a great run to get seventh,” Slekis said.

Godette was part of the men’s 4 x 100 relay along with Jordan Jackson, Nisaiah Bennett, and Kahlil Lewis to finish seventh with a time of 41.31 to earn two points.

Although it was the same group, the order was changed for the race, leading to the best-ever time in school history.

“We went Kahlil to Amari to Jordan to Nisaiah. It used to be Jordan, Nisaiah, Kahlil, and Amari,” Slekis pointed out.

“It worked really well,” she continued. “One of the reasons you want to put relay (teams) out there, just like the women things can go badly for other people. Two teams, one in the men’s and one in the women’s dropped the baton, then you move up a spot. Both our teams capitalized off that.”

The Nicholls men’s team finished with a total of eight points. The top men’s team was Incarnate Word with 167 points.

“That was our men’s highest score since I’ve been here with the program getting reinstated,” Slekis noted.

Some of the results in the conference meet, along with the experience gained with such a young group of athletes, Slekis said, bodes well for the future.

“I think we had a really good season,” Slekis said. “Maria (Nikolaou) came up to me after the end of the meet and said, ‘overall, what a great freshman year.’ We have such a young group. Both Cherie and Jinte are young. The distance group all young. We have a huge recruiting class coming in this next year. We graduated some really big people all-time in our program.

“Rebuilding, I don’t think we could ask for more. We had a great year overall. Our sport’s unique. We had freshmen women in the distance group had to do three championships. They ran cross country, indoor and outdoor – not just one season with one championship. Even Jinte and Cherie to come out and do what they did in the multi indoor and outdoor, we have great potential going forward. Girls like Sydney Brown (in the triple jump) still had great marks throughout the season, we just have to hit it right at the meets. We are excited about where we will be next year.”