NATCHITOCHES – With three of the top nine finishers and five of the top 16, the Northwestern State men picked up a long-awaited team championship Friday at the Demon Invitational cross country meet, completing a sweep of team honors for NSU.
 
The Demons scored a seven-point victory (46-53) over Louisiana Tech in an 11-team field, with third-place Grambling well back at 105. The Lady Demons posted a solid 16-point triumph over Grambling (51-67) while Alcorn State 972) edged Louisiana-Monroe (73) for third place in a 12-team women's race.
 
Individually, NSU senior Sarah Emory picked up her third win this fall with her 18:13.1 time over the three-mile course around the Walter P. Ledet Track Complex providing a five-second margin over Nicole Leman of LeTourneau. Lady Demon teammates Karensa Ellis (19:02.1) and Ali Fontenot (19:11.7) finished 6-7.
 
Northwood's Kip Kosgei was the men's champion with a 14:53.2 while Demons freshman Mitch Landry ran a personal record 14:58.7 for second. NSU teammates Alex Hebert (sixth, 15:40.9) and Jeremy Elliott (ninth, 15:55.9) provided the other two top 10 scores for the victorious home team.
 
Completing the scorecard for the Demons were 13^th-place Albert Gladney (16:06.8) and Chris Lanier in 16:13.7 for 16^th place. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Demons: Becca Meehan, 13^th in 20:14.2, and Maya Robertson, 24^th in 21:13.5.
 
“The men gave an outstanding effort, pretty much led from the gun by Mitch Landry,” said NSU cross country coach Adam Malloy. “We expected him to compete for the win individually, and he did. Although he fell a little bit short of first place, he ran an outstanding time, a PR, and you can't be disappointed in that performance.
 
“We pretty much had PR's down the line. It helps that a lot of our guys are from Louisiana and they've run this same course in the state high school championships before coming to us. They came out today with the intention to win the meet. They knew Louisiana Tech would be their closest competition, and positioned themselves in places where we could beat them, and they got it done.”
 
The meet is held each year on the course used by the annual Louisiana High School Athletic Association Championships in mid-November.
 
Trailing the 1-2-3 finish of Northwestern, Louisiana Tech and Grambling in the men's standings were Wiley College (131), LeTourneau (149), Alcorn State (182), Northwood (184), East Texas Baptist (198), Centenary (236) and Louisiana College (304). Failing to finish five runners to record a team scorer were McNeese State and Jarvis.
 
“We had a lot of competition. It was not just us against Louisiana Tech, it was us against an 11-team field,” said Malloy. “That's top-notch to win in that large a meet.”
 
The women's teams trailing NSU, Grambling, Alcorn and ULM were fifth-place LeTourneau (143), Centenary (174), East Texas Baptist (175), Louisiana Tech (208) and Louisiana College (243).  Non-scoring teams in a 12-team race were Jarvis, Northwood and Wiley College.
 
“I'm happy we could both win,” said Malloy.  “I actually would have liked to have seen the women perform a little better, but they won and I can't really complain. I'm looking forward to next week because the Southland Conference meet is what really matters.”
 
The men's victory validated the squad's consistently strong performances this fall, said Malloy.
 
“We're always talking about the women because they've placed higher, so it's nice to be able to celebrate the men's success,” he said. “Really, the men have raced better than the women all year, but the women have a little more talent and can skate by on that as far as placing in the team scoring.”
 
The meet was the final tuneup for NSU before next Friday morning's Southland Championships in Beaumont, Texas.

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