XU's Moses and Fakler receive All-Louisiana distinction

CATHERINE FAKLER AND COACH JOSEPH MOSES RECEIVES ALL-LOUISIANA
RECOGNITION BY THE LSWA

NEW ORLEANS — Joseph Moses and Catherine Fakler are Xavier University of Louisiana's representatives on the 2015 All-Louisiana women's track and field team sponsored by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association and announced late Saturday.
    
Moses, who led the Gold Nuggets to a third consecutive Gulf Coast Athletic Conference outdoor team championship, was voted Coach of the Year by an LSWA panel of track sports information directors. Fakler qualified for the team in two events as the state's No. 3 performer this year in the 1,500 and 5,000-meter runs.
    
Moses, 47, produced qualifiers for the NAIA National Outdoor Championships in four events, and one — long-jumper Devinn Rolland — earned All-America for the third time in four years. Rolland and Fakler were Xavier's first-ever first-team CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
    
This is the first time for Moses to be named Louisiana Coach of the Year in track and field. He has won the LSWA award a combined nine times in men's and women's cross country. Runner-up for women's Coach of the Year was LSU's Dennis Shaver, who won or shared the honor eight of the past nine seasons.
    
Moses is the first from a non-NCAA university to be named Louisiana Coach of the Year in track and the second from an HBCU. Southern's Johnny Thomas won the men's award in 2003.
    
Fakler, from Phoenix, Ariz., and a graduate of Xavier College Preparatory High School, was All-Louisiana in two events for the second time in three years. She qualified with a time of 4 minutes, 51.07 seconds in the 1,500 and 18:54.34 in the 5,000. In April she four individual events and anchored a winning relay at the GCAC Championships, and in May she became the first XU student-athlete on record to graduate with a cumulative 4.0 GPA.
    
Fakler is Xavier's first student-athlete to be named All-Louisiana in cross country and track. She was an all-state harrier each of the past two autumns.
    
The top three performers in each event, based on times compiled by the NCAA and NAIA, earn All-Louisiana.

 It's the third straight year that the Gold Nuggets were represented on the All-Louisiana team. Hannah Finnegan qualified in 2014 with the No. 1 time in the 3,000 steeplechase.
    
Although neither made the team, sprinter Joseph Moses III — the son of the coach — and hurdler Tylor Row were runners-up in Freshman of the Year voting.


Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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