NATCHITOCHES – Getting the final test before the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships on Halloween, Northwestern State lines up at home Friday afternoon at 3 hosting at least six area teams in the Demon Invitational at the Walter P. Ledet Track Complex.
 
Senior Lawana Perkins will aim for her third race title this season in the women's race while Mark Dotson will lead the Demons into the subsequent men's competition. Teams from Centenary, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana College, Louisiana-Lafayette, East Texas Baptist and Wiley College are expected to run a 3-mile course Friday.
 
The course begins just behind the NSU Soccer Complex, winds around the west side of the Northwestern campus and finishes on the track at the Ledet Complex. It is the same course, and the same distance, used annually for the Louisiana High School Association's Cross Country Championships.
 
“Ali Fontenot and Aly Coughlin are making big improvements week in and week out,” said Lady Demon coach Adam Malloy. “The remainder of the top five includes Kirstie Jones and Becca Meehan who both ran significant personal bests last weekend for 6,000 meters at Centenary. The remaining two spots for the conference meet will be up for grabs for Erin Knox, Consuela Lindsay, Constance Seibles, Sarah Emory, and Tamerin Taylor.”
 
For the Demons, Alex Hebert and Albert Gladney were the second and third place finishers last week behind Dotson, who has led the NSU men all season long. Also in the scoring mix will be Zach Burns, John Broughton, Chris Lanier, D.J. Beyette, Travis Plumb, Matt Rodell, and Nathanial McReynolds.
 
The high school division of the Demon Invitational will be Saturday morning with racing beginning at 11 for girls, and 11:45 for the boys, with over 20 teams expected.