Women’s team winning home meet among highlights of Nicholls cross country team in 2023

When a young Nicholls cross country team participated in the NCAA South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., to conclude the season, it wasn’t so much about results as it was about an opportunity.

“I think it was a great experience to go and race such competition and get to experience our sport and national level when you’re seeing everyone in the country comes together at nine region meets to race and then those ultimately will have the teams and individuals will go to national championships. It’s a neat opportunity,” Nicholls coach Stefanie Slekis said.

The big highlight for the Nicholls women’s team, said Slekis was coming the outcome of her current young squad to results turned in by one of the school’s all-time track greats, Elsa Rijpstra, when she competed as a freshman on the same course four years ago.

“The top three women for us were all true freshmen. They all ran faster than she ran four years ago on that course. Kassidy (Besson) beat the placing finish like Elsa had that meet as well,” Slekis said.

Beeson finished the 6k course in a time of 23:11.4 to finish in 119th place in a field of 180. Issy Rinvault had a time of 23:51.3 for 150th place, representing the two Nicholls runners to finish in the top 150. Another freshman, Maria Nikolaou, had a time of 24:14.7.

“So for our team, you look at how young we are,” Slekis said. “To have them go into that, Elsa was the start of a group that went on to have our highest conference finish we’ve had, highest regional finish we’ve had since my time here which was right on the bubble of program history for those. Those women went on to be what fifth in the conference and 16th in the region one of the years. The best Nicholls has done is fifth or sixth in the conference, and that’s when there were 13 teams, and 12th for the region.

“For us, you look at this group of women that was the plan on bringing somebody true freshmen was to build the best Nicholls team we’ve ever been. I think that was exciting when you think about everyone returning from this women’s team with Elaina Hansen red-shirting and coming back. I’m really excited about where we’ll be with the girls we’re signing and stuff for next year.”

Goran Duijsters finished first among the Nicholls men in the 10k event with a time of 23:51.3, placing 155th in a field of 172. Chase Walker had a time of 34:42.0 to place 160th. Lucas Futey had a time of 35:02.0.

“Luke Futey went out there and ran his best 10k cross race he’s run but he has had a lot of bad luck this year,” Slekis explained. “He was sick again this whole week of practice leading up to it and he ended up being our third guy.

“As a whole, our men’s team just made a big step up where there’s a lot of people that can interchange the whole groups moved up. I think, kind of like talking about the women, setting the foundation, I think that Chase Walker freshman class is, they’re sophomores now with Thomas (Saunders) and Will Bellina, setting the tone for where we can be in two years. I think that’s what’s exciting for the men’s team.”

Prior to the regionals, meets the Nicholls teams competed in during the 2023 season included the UNO XC Opener, the LSU Invitational, the Auturo Barrios Invitational, and the Southland Conference XC Championship. The Colonels also hosted the Nicholls XC Invitational.

The highlight of the season for the Nicholls women’s team, Slekis said, was winning its home meet.

“In cross country, you’re never really running one-on-one. Each individual, to win is very difficult. There are possibly hundreds of competitors in the field. I think for our women’s team, that was one of those matches where in other sports they get those wins. You get to show up and play a team that you’re like, ‘we can beat this team.’ I think that was exciting at home where we actually got to outright win, and beating Division I opponents,” Slekis said.

For the men, Slekis said, the highlight may have been the meet in Baton Rouge.

“I think the LSU meet has some parts were really big highs for the guys, going there and running pretty fast from their last year Will Bellina, he’s a big personal bests,” said Slekis. “I think for them a lot of it might have come in training and how many of them were able to do some of the bigger sessions we had.

I think for our men’s team one of the things we talk about is for (William) Nizzo and Avery Morgan, they didn’t quite get to have the race performances as some of their workouts indicated. Part of that is we are over-training a little bit, when you think some of the paces they are running in workouts, they’re stretching themselves a bit, and so to be able to have that fatigue and actually race at the level they’re working out at, sometimes there is a lag to that.”

The low point, said Slekis, was the Southland Conference meet.

“I think the conference meet was pretty disappointing,” the Nicholls coach said. “We hit like what we were expected to do. So someone did the rankings, we were seventh and eighth on paper, and that’s where we were last year.

“I look at it like, ‘hey, those teams had a lot of returners on them, and we were seventh and eighth. These teams had a lot of newcomers and young people going out doing the same thing.’

“I think that we were just hoping that it could be our day where everything clicked,” she continued. “I think we still were on the men side dealing with some sickness. On the women’s side. Kali (Kalin Baratka) didn’t race, which she was a big improvement at A&M meet, and (Kassidy), just being a freshman, just got to us.

“That was probably the low point because I think we were kind of coming off some pretty big highs. Early season seeing returns, setting personal bests on courses and some really good team workouts, and running fast times at A&M (the Auturo Barrios Invitational0, especially for the women, and then kind of going to the conference meet and just not being what we had hoped.”

Team cohesion, said Slekis, could serve as the theme for the 2023 cross country team.

“I think their ability to navigate the highs and lows, the maturity that Kassidy had over what was a pretty disastrous conference championship,” Slekis said. “Then the ability to come back from that handle the critique and be able to go out and run a strong regional race, which is something she had never done before.

“Luke Futey to navigate how hard he trained and then still keep getting sick and be excited for his teammates when they beat him and stuff. What I’m so proud of our team is that they have just such a good attitude and they’re very cohesive. They really want the other people on their team to do well and you need that in cross country because it’s not always gonna be your day.”

While the results have not necessarily been eye-popping over recent years for the track and cross country programs, there have been strides.

“I think we’re taking over a good chunk of the all-time list, so that’s kind of fun. I think in track over 20 percent of the all-time marks for the women have been set since I’ve been at Nicholls, so that’s pretty cool. Now looking at cross country, I think we’re pretty similar percentage-wise. So, we’re building and excited for the future.”