William Short
October 12, 2010
Trial in Gulf oil spill cases postponed
October 14, 2010
It’s a tale of two worlds for the Nicholls State men and women’s cross country teams. On one hand, there’s the men’s team – a seven-person all-Louisiana squad with six Tri-parish natives.
Everyone on the roster hails from 90-minutes or less away from the campus and virtually everyone has known everyone else from their prep careers.
Making up the team are three South Lafourche graduates, two Vandebilt graduates and a Berwick graduate, with the lone “outsider” hailing from Metairie.
“I feel comfortable with my teammates, because I’ve been with them for a good while,” freshman Blaine Gisclair said. “We’ve been together only a few weeks here at Nicholls, but it seems like a while, because we’ve been racing with one another or against one another for so long in high school. Everyone here has known everyone else for a while.”
And then on the opposite side of the spectrum, there are the women. Their roster isn’t quite as “home-oriented” as the men’s.
Spin the globe and take a guess of a country, as there are female Colonels who hail from as far as Iowa in the states, and as far as Canada, Kenya and Jamaica worldwide.
While some might think blending so many cultures would result in a healthy serving of chaos soup, one of two Louisiana natives on the women’s team, senior Kadi Whisnant said the team’s roster provides the best of all worlds for the cross country teams.
“This is definitely something different than a lot of other teams,” Whisnant said. “We have girls from all over the United States and all over the world. It’s really cool, because we get a little bit of everybody’s way of doing things from all over the world, and we take all of those different things from those different cultures and incorporate them into our training here at Nicholls. It adds a lot of spice, and it’s really fun.”
Bringing together those diverse local and international personalities is the Colonels’ coach Scott Williamson.
Williamson said a divide in the recruiting philosophies between the teams is the result of a lack of scholarships for the men’s team, compared to the women’s team.
“When you’re a cross country-only program without a track and field program to compliment you, you have limited numbers,” Williamson said.
“It’s really hard for us to attract athletes from all over the place, because a lot of athletes want to do both, cross country and track and field, so with our men’s team, we work on trying to focus our recruiting efforts on kids who want to be here at Nicholls State – kids who are going to come to school here because they love the university … And most of the time, those kids are the local kids – the kids who love the area and who want to be here. That’s been the best fit for us with our men’s team,” Williamson said.
Likewise, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the women’s team has a track and field program, which allows them to search the ins and outs of the globe to find the best runners they can.
“We just simply have more scholarship money to give, so we’re able to get out and attract kids from a little bit farther away,” Williamson said.
From the diverse roster has come success.
The women’s team, which is ranked No. 13 in the South Central Region, had two top-three finishes in their opening meet of the season, led by freshman Emily Charlesworth and senior Jessica McLeod, who placed second.
Whisnant and senior Lauren Jones placed third.
The boys’ team also held its own as Gisclair and junior Casey Keiser ran to a seventh-place finish.
With the meat of the schedule forthcoming, Williamson said he has high hopes for his team, which has come a long way – literally – to gather here in Thibodaux.
“It’s kind of fun watching them all come together from such different backgrounds,” Williamson said. “And it’s good for our kids, because they get to meet new people from Kenya, Jamaica and all of the different walks of life … but we’re also performing well. Our men’s team is coming together and are getting better and better each week. And our women’s team is ranked in the region and has a chance to do some pretty special things in the back portion of the season. We’re excited, the kids are excited, and this is going to be an interesting season to see just how good we can be.”
Nicholls State freshman Emily Charlesworth (left) pushes forward during a race this season, while fellow freshman Blaine Gisclair does the same. CASEY GISCLAIR
