Bourgeois qualifies for NCAAs

All Nicholls State senior Leslie Bourgeois needed was a Top 12 finish.

She did much better than that and has again made school history.

Bourgeois qualified for the NCAA Championship Finals for the second-straight year in the javelin on Thursday with a 158-foot-5-inch throw.

The throw was her final attempt of the day and was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the NCAA East Preliminaries in Greensboro, N.C. The toss made her the first Colonel athlete to qualify for the Finals in consecutive years.

“The way she stepped up and delivered on her final throw really says a lot about her as a person and about her ability to deliver in pressure situations,” said Colonels coach Scott Williamson.

Freshman Aja Scott also competed in the Prelims in the javelin for the Colonels and she had a 33rd-place finish.

But she exceeded expectations, considering she entered the 48-person field seeded No. 47.

“To come into the meet as one of the last qualifiers and jump up into the low-30s is huge,” Williamson said.

Rounding out the Colonels who competed in Greensboro was junior Kadi Whisnant, who qualified in the 3,000M steeplechase.

Like Scott, Whisnant was not able to qualify for Nationals, but with one year left to compete, the Colonels’ coach said he knows Whisnant will be able to compete at a high level again next season.

Bourgeois returns to the track on June 9 in Eugene, Oregon at the NCAA Championships – an event earlier in the season she said was her goal for the season.

“Definitely,” she said when asked. “I’m focused on getting back to the NCAAs and see if I can have my best throw as my last.”