Rice meet final preparation for Nicholls track teams before Southland Conference Championships

A little more experimentation, coupled with athletes getting a bit more work in their normal events, will be the focus for the Nicholls track teams at the J. Fred Duckett Twilight meet hosted by Rice University in Houston on Saturday.

The event will be the final of the season prior to the Southland Conference Championships, which will be held May 9-11, also at the Rice University’s Holloway Field and Ley Track.

Coming off strong performances at the Strawberry Relays, runners such as Kassidy Besson, Maria Nikolaou, and Sophia Harrison, will be in action in different events at the Houston meet.

“We were really excited for Kassidy and Maria in the women’s 1500 for the two freshmen having to lead so that’s really exciting for them going to two different events at Rice,” said Nicholls coach Stefanie Slekis, referencing the Strawberry Relays. “Maria is going to run the 800 and then she might come back in 1500. We entered her to come back in that if she wants to give it a go, but the main event for her is gonna be the 800. We’re excited to see what she can do since indoor in that. Kassidy is going to actually step up and run the 5k on the track.

Sophia will run the 5k on the track as well, so the two of them can probably hopefully work together, which they’ve gotten to do since cross country. Normally they don’t run the same events. Indoor, in the 3k conference is the only other time they ran together.”

Issy Rivault, among the women, and Ty Frazier for the men, will be competing in the steeplechase for the first time.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how both of them do in the steeplechase. I think they seem like it clicks a little bit better for them, so we’re hoping the first one is a good one, that it’s worth doing it again at the conference meet,” said Slekis.

There will be a few changes with the men’s 4 x 100 relay, Slekis said.

“We’re switching things up a little bit on that. It went well last time. It was our fastest time of the season, but I we think we can go even better,” the Nicholls coach said.

With numerous short-sprinter runners for the men consistently setting personal records, it will be the status quo in those events, running in the 100 and 200 meters.

Among the women, Nia Maye may participate in an additional event.

“Nia is entered in the 400, so she’s gonna possibly run that. She (set a personal record) in the 100, so we are excited to see what she can do in the 400,” said Slekis.

Lucas Futey is slated to run the 5k. We’re excited to see if he can run faster than when he ran indoor conference,” Slekis said.

After participating in the 200-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles, and the high jump in the Strawberry Relays, multi-event athletes Cherie Neal, Jinte Braas, and Andrea Tirado, will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, the long jump, and the javelin, as they continue to prepare to take part in the heptathlon at the conference meet.

Danya Satterfield is slated to compete in both hurdles events.

“She still hasn’t run the 400 hurdles to keep entering her and just deciding it’s not worth it after 100 hurdles. We’ll see if we give that a go. She ran the second-best time of her life at this meet in the 100 hurdles. She grazed one of the hurdles, so I’m hoping for her to have a good execution doing that again,” Slekis noted.

Sydney Brown is entered in her normal events of the high jump and triple among the women. For the men, Chris Tucker is entered in the triple jump.

Gavin Windham is looking to crack the Top 10 in the javelin.

“In the javelin, he’s ranked, I think, 11th now, but everyone from seventh through 11th has thrown 52-meters-something. It’s exciting to see if he can be ranked in the top nine in the conference,” Slekis said.

The Nicholls track team took part in the J. Fred Duckett Twilight meet a year ago as a final test before taking part in the conference meet in Commerce, Texas. This time around, the Colonels will be able to return to a familiar Houston venue.

“They have a great facility all around. It will be perfect. We had a great tune-up at Rice last year,” Slekis said.