Russell Bruce
September 22, 2009
Zenobia Barrow
September 24, 2009
Nicholls State cross-country coach Matthew Esche didn’t have to go far to find talent. Judging this year’s roster, he didn’t even have to leave the Tri-parishes.
The university’s entire 2009 team is composed of athletes within a short commute from home. Based on the number of state championships area feeder high schools are producing, it’s a trend that will likely continue.
The six-man team – junior Joseph Fryou, sophomores Justin Babin and Tyler Folse and freshmen Jorden Reed, Ross Mullooly and Dylan Williams – are looking to earn the Colonels’ program respectability.
And there’s plenty of room for improvement. Nicholls cross country has consistently ranked last in the Southland Conference. A move even one rung up the ladder would be better.
“We’re just gunning not to finish last in the conference for once,” Folse contends. “Even if it means we are second to last, we’ve still improved. We want to be a part of the team that changes the fortunes of Nicholls cross country.”
Esche is confident he has the talent – and his runners have the drive – to achieve that.
“These guys have some pretty solid goals as to what they want to do,” he said. “It’s all things that will help turn the program around. So far this season, they have been very dedicated. They are showing up to practice and giving 100 percent. I really can’t complain.”
An added plus the six-man roster brings to the university: Book smarts.
“They are phenomenal students,” Esche boasts like a proud father. “They make the grades, and that helps the image of our program as well.”
Given Nicholls’ commitment to educating student athletes, the coach said it makes his job easier.
“I know I don’t have to worry about the academic part, because they are all great students,” he said. “I can just focus on the running and making them better.”
Esche, 26, a native of Wakesha, Wisc., is in his second year as head coach of the cross country teams.
He’s built a strong team, in large part because Tri-parish cross country runners go relatively untapped by outside colleges.
It wasn’t their close locale that attracted Esche to his six-man team; it was talent.
Fryou was named to the All-District squad in his senior year at Berwick High, where he helped the Panthers claim the district championship in the 2-mile event.
Babin was named to the All-State team as a junior in 2007. His alma mater, the Vandebilt Terriers, would clinch the parish championship that same year.
Folse was a first team All-District pick for the South Lafourche Tarpons and a member of the school’s record-breaking distance medley and 800-meter relay teams.
Reed earned All-State track honors, finishing second in the 3,200 meters in 2007. He was a three-time All-State honoree in cross country, earning runner-up honors at the 2008 state cross-country meet. Reed was also a member of the E.D. White Cardinal cross-country team that won three consecutive state championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
And Vandebilt High grad Mullooly earned an All-District and All-Parish spot in cross country in 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as All-State in 2008. He was awarded All-District and All-Parish honors in track in 2008 and 2009. Vandebilt teammate Williams earned All-District honorable mention as a sophomore and an All-District first-team spot his junior and senior years. He was also named an academic All-State runner his sophomore and senior years.
“There are a lot of (local) guys that have great talent,” Esche said. “If we can get it and develop it, in the next couple of years, they are going to be real good talent for us and represent us really well.”
Hailing from the same backyard has made bonding a bit easier, too. After all, at some point in their young careers, the six have competed against each other at high school meets.
The transition from rivals to teammates has been an easy one, according to Reed.
“Me and Ross had been friends for some time,” he said of teammate Mullooly. “I knew a lot of these guys, so it didn’t take me long to become friends with them.
“We all know how we race, and that helps us out individually,” Reed added. “We know what each of us wants to do during races by the way we practice.”
Adjusting to the rigors of collegiate cross-country meets, on the other hand, has been tougher.
“I’m still at the point (that) I really don’t know what to expect,” Mullooly said. “I’m just hoping I can do my part to make an impact on the team and help everybody else at the same time. I just want all of us to help the team.”
Babin, one of three returning starters, said this season’s squad is determined to succeed – a discernable difference from past years.
Although he has spent much of the past year nursing a stress fracture in his femur, Babin said he is anxious to get back to running.
“As a team, we are doing so much better. Most of the guys have improved,” he said. “We’re bonding a lot better than we have in the past. It took a little getting used to being on the same team as a high school rival; but in the end, it makes us all better. It will make the team much better too because they are all good runners.”
At the 29th annual Southern Miss Invitational last week – Nicholls’ cross country team’s first competition of the season – the group provided a strong showing.
Reed, Fryou, Mullooly and Folse all reached the Top 15. Reed finished 10th (22:58.27), followed by 12th-place finisher Fryou (23:04.83). Mullooly ran 13th (23:08.59) and Tyler Folse was in 14th place (23:13.69). The trio narrowly missed out on individual top-10 finishes.
Despite missing practices because of flu-like symptoms, Williams finished 20th.
Esche was impressed with his team’s first outing.
“I think that on our men’s side, we did a great job of showing that we have a very solid one-through-four pack,” the coach said following the race. “It was only a 16 second one-through-four, which is outstanding.
“The guys did a great job working as a team,” Esche added. “I think we are only going to get stronger as a team as the year goes on.”
Nicholls State’s cross-country team has aspirations of rewriting the sport’s history at the university. Justin Babin, Ross Mullooly, Tyler Folse, Joseph Fryou and Jordan Reed – along with Dylan Williams, who was nursing flu-like symptoms and is not pictured – had a strong showing at this weekend’s Mississippi State Invitational. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
