Nicholls Breaks 60 Hurdles Mark Again As Track & Field Participates In KMS Invite

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Participating in his fourth indoor meet as a member of the University of New Orleans track and field team, Privateer freshman Michael Nicholls must feel like his daily routine is like a broken record. That is because he breaks records nearly every time he takes to the track and Sunday was no different as the native of Bridgetown, Barbados, surpasses his own school mark in the 60-meter hurdles at the KMS Indoor Invitational in the Birmingham CrossPlex.

Nicholls clocked a 7.99 in the preliminaries and finished fourth in the finals with a mark of 8.14. His preliminary time was four one-hundredths of a second faster than his previous record of 8.03 during the preliminaries at the Vulcan Invite two weeks ago on the very same track.

The 60-meter hurdles mark is one of three records to fall at the KMS Invite as freshman Jordan Courtois tied the Privateers' mark in the pole vault, clearing a height of 3.35 meters, and sophomore Nick Schiro broke his own record in the men's weight throw with a toss of 11.22 meters. Courtois' effort in the women's pole vault was good for a fifth-place finish on Sunday as UNO posted a dozen Top 10 efforts as a team.

Also posting Top 10 finishes for the UNO women were junior Alexia Fortenberry, junior Fadeke Adeola, freshman Alba Fernandez, junior Chelise Brown and senior Callie Willcox. Fortenbery finished third in 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.32 while Fernandez was seventh in the 200 meters with a 24.67 showing and ninth in the 60-meter dash at 7.79. Adeola was fourth in the high jump with a leap of five feet, five inches, with Brown and Willcox finishing 10th in the 60-meter dash (7.80) and 5000 meters (20:04.89), respectively. The women's distance medley unit also finished fourth with a time of 14:17.15.

On the men's side, the distance medley team finished fourth with an 11:18.67, junior Alireza Rafiei was sixth in the shot put with a toss of 50 feet, 2.5 inches, and junior Jared Robertson crossed seventh in the 5000 meters with a time of 16:11.00.

New Orleans returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 7, when the Privateers head back to Birmingham to participate in the South Alabama Invitational in their final meet before the 2016 Southland Conference Indoor Championship, which is slated for Feb. 15-16.