NEW ORLEANS – As Northwestern State's women's track and field team prepares for a three-day run at the Southland Outdoor Championships starting Friday, the squad hopes to continue its recent string of success at conference by finding the podium for the fourth straight year outdoors.
 
This is the first time in the Southland's history that the Crescent City will host the Outdoor Championships, with combined events kicking the weekend off at 9:30 a.m. at Tad Gorley Stadium. Field events are slated to begin at 10 a.m., and running events will cap off the first day of competition at 8:10 p.m.
 
Saturday's schedule will also begin with combined events, which start at 9 a.m. Field and running events start back up at three, with field ending at six with the shot put finals. The running events will conclude the day at 7:50 with the steeplechase finals.
 
Sunday will be filled with final events, with the field starting the day off at 10 a.m. and the high jump concluding the field events at 12:30 p.m. The running events are slated to begin at 12:00 p.m. and will end with the 4x400 relay at 3:35 p.m.
 
Defending a championship for the Lady Demons is do-it-all junior, De'Shalyn Jones.
 
Jones hopes to repeat in the 400 meters, and hopefully add a few more titles to the collection, as she is the conference's top-ranked competitor in the 100 (11.50), 200 (23.12), 400 (53.61) and also runs on the 4x1 and 4x4 relay teams that own the SLC's top spots.
 
"De'Shalyn has progressed a little bit each year over the past two years, and now she is starting to do some big things in the conference and nationally," associate head coach Adam Pennington said.
 
While short on gold medals, the women's team brings back plenty of experience from last year's team that put up a second-place finish, its best since joining the conference in 1987.
 
Six returners scored by placing top eight for the Lady Demons in Corpus Christi, Texas, last year, led by Braneshia Payton and Madison Morton in the 100 and 400-meter hurdles.
 
Payton placed third in the 100h last year and is poised for a run at gold this trip, as she currently ranks second in the SLC with her time of 13.51.
 
Morton took fifth overall last time around, but the now senior currently ranks fourth in the 400h, boasting a mark of 1:01.55. Morton will not be alone when she lines up in the blocks, as Barton County Community College transfer Tamara Style will also line up for the Lady Demons.
 
Style holds the conference's third-best time of 1:00.92, which she achieved at the East Texas Invitational.

The women will also rely heavily on a jumps squad that has three athletes ranked in the top-five.
 
Quanese Jones-Young leads the bunch, ranking second in the high jump with a mark of 5-08.00.

Other top performers are freshman Jasmyn Steels with a long jump of 19-09.50 that ranks fifth in the conference and Fabriana Nation, whose mark of 40-01.25 ranks fifth in the triple jump.
 
The throws' group, led by Kelsey Frank in the javelin and Cori Runnels in the shot put and discus, will anchor the Lady Demons effort to extend its podium streak.
 
Frank owns the conferences best mark in her specialty event of 155-01.25, while Runnels is top-three in both of her events. Her shot put distance of 46-11.00 ranks second, while her discus mark of 147-09 sits at third overall.
 
"Hopefully we see some fireworks this weekend," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "We are all healthy, so we should be able to go in and put up some great throws."