BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Northwestern State raced to its best day ever at the Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Thursday.
With heavy scoring in the sprints, the Lady Demons posted their highest-ever indoor finish, second place, and their all-time indoor scoring total, 95 points. The fastest Demons also lit up the scoreboard as the NSU men posted their best indoor finish since 2003, taking third place in the final standings in a 13-member conference.
Sophomore
Natashia Jackson had a breakout day with a challenging workload, capturing the Women's High Point Award by scoring 23.5 with a win in the 400 meter dash (54.78), a leg on the winning 4x400 relay team (3:43.89), a silver medal performance in the 200 (24.03) and a sixth-place 7.63 in the 60 dash.
"You can't say enough. We extended her," said NSU head coach
Mike Heimerman. "She ran the 60, the 200 and the 400, and then the 4x400. We took a chance, but she said she wanted to do it. There's nobody in the sprints here who ran the distance she did in all her races. She never gets tired, and she's just the best athlete to coach."
Two more gold medal performances came from senior
Daeshon Gordon and
De'Shalyn Jones. Gordon defended her 60 meter hurdles crown, clocking 8.26. Jones, last year's 400 champion indoors and the High Point Scorer at last May's Southland Outdoors, ran a personal best 24.02 in the 200 to nip Jackson.
Heimerman set a second-place finish as the Lady Demons' target. As expected, Sam Houston State defended both team championships for a second consecutive year.
"We had a lot of kids who stepped up and although we didn't come close to a perfect meet overall, for us to get the best team finish in school history indoors, you have to be pleased," he said. "The runners did a phenomenal job. They carried the team."
The Lady Demons piled up an astounding 69 of their 95 points in the sprints.
The Demons also did extremely well in the dashes, even though their top two,
Micah Larkins and
Amir James, were hampered by injuries. With
Kie'Ave Harry, James,
Tremayne Flagler,
Michael McGruder and Desmond Mapps setting the pace, the sprinters scored 34 points in the 60 and 200 to account for nearly half of NSU's 80 points.
"It was a good meet, not a great one, but still a big step forward to finish third and to do so at less than full throttle because of the injuries," said Heimerman about the Demons. "Losing Micah in the 60 meter prelims, he scored one point and we thought he'd get 18 for us. But other people stepped up."
The NSU men went 2-3-4 in the 60 dash led by sophomore Harry's 6.74. McGruder made the awards podium with a third-place 6.77, barely ahead of the 6.78 by James. Larkins, who aggravated an injury Wednesday while qualifying for Thursday's final, scored a point by limping across eighth.
James captured second in the 200 (21.25) with McGruder (21.51) and Mapps (21.78) crossing 5-6. Flagler, a junior, was the men's 60 meter hurdles runner-up in 8:03.
The Lady Demons got a silver-medal mark from senior
Quanese Jones-Young, who cleared 5-7 ¾ in the high jump.
Four NSU competitors picked up bronze medals:
Kyrin Tucker in the men's weight throw (59-3),
Joshua Wilkins in the men's mile (4:18.47), Ceasar Stephens in the men's triple jump (49-7) and McGruder in the 60. Wilkins' third place came despite an early fall in the race, and he later scored another point by taking eighth in the 3,000 in 8:38.82.
Jones in fourth (7.63) led three Lady Demons in the 60 dash, with Jackson (7.63) in sixth and Gordon (7.65) eighth for a combined nine-point haul.
In Thursday's first race, the 60 hurdles, the Lady Demons racked up 18 points with Gordon's win, a fourth-place 8.46 by Braneshia Payton and
Jasmine Frazier's 8.79 for sixth.
In the triple jump,
Jasmyn Steels (fourth, 39-7 ¾) and
Fabriana Nation (sixth, 38-7 ½) posted eight points.
Deja Moore gave the NSU women fifth in the 200 (24.70) and ran a gutsy anchor leg on the winning 4x400 team, taking the baton in the lead and regaining it in the final 100 meters to prevail. She followed last-minute add
Courtney Willis on the opening leg, Jackson and
Widline Lageroy.
Jackson, nicknamed "Speedy," was the only Lady Demon on the relay team who was part of last year's champion foursome.
"To come out here and repeat the win we got here, although with some different girls running, it means a lot to me," she said.
Jessica Coleman finished sixth for the Lady Demons in the 800, clocking 2:16.64.
Sam Houston lapped the field in the team scoring. The SHSU men won by 25, 128-103, over Stephen F. Austin with NSU 23 points back in third at 80, topping fourth-place Lamar by four. In the women's competition, SHSU was 28 points ahead of the Lady Demons' 95. SFA took third at 84 ½ with Abilene Christian fourth (70 ½).
Heimerman and his athletes were already eager to fast-forward to May and the Southland Outdoors. He was especially bullish on the Demons after the injuries to Larkins and James contributed to what he estimated was 30 points "left on the table" in Birmingham.
"Everybody better watch out, because this team will be hard to beat outdoors. I'm not taking anything away from Sam Houston and SFA, but we're going to be right there with them in May," he said. "Our women are better than what we scored here, too. I like where we're headed."
Team scores:
MEN- 1, Sam Houston State, 128; 2, Stephen F. Austin, 103;
3 Northwestern State 80; 4, Lamar 76; 5, McNeese, 53; 6, Central Arkansas 49; 7, Incarnate Word 45 1/2; 8, Southeastern Louisiana 41; 9, Abilene Christian 39; 10, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 20 1/2; 11, Houston Baptist, 20; 12, New Orleans, 6.
WOMEN – 1, Sam Houston State 123;
2, Northwestern State 95; 3, Stephen F. Austin 84 1/2; 4, Abilene Christian 70 1/2; 5, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 69; 6, Incarnate Word, 56 1/2; 7, Lamar 54; 8, McNeese 38 1/2; 9, Southeastern Louisiana 38; 10, Houston Baptist 14; 10, Central Arkansas 14; 12, Nicholls, 16.