CLINTON, Mississippi – The Northwestern State cross country teams face their largest field of competition of the year Saturday morning at the Mississippi College Invitational on the historical grounds of the Choctaw Trails.
 
Action will begin at 8 a.m. with a men's 8,000 meter run followed by a women's 5,000 race. Both NSU teams are matching up against 24 schools, including Troy, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, UL-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, and New Orleans.  
 
The Demons and Lady Demons last competed in a similarly large event at the McNeese Cowboy Stampede on Sept. 29, where both finished in fifth place. Head coach Chris Sauer believes that running in such a large group can be very beneficial.
 
"The biggest thing was getting them in a field that was more competitive so they know how to react when we get to the conference meet in two weeks. The wet conditions made it easy for us to ignore times and try to race the way we need to in the future," said Sauer.
 
Saturday's meet will be the final regular season action before heading back to Lake Charles on Oct. 26 for the Southland Conference Championships. Sauer is excited to have this final meet to prepare for the postseason.
 
"The men have had some good performances throughout this season, but we still haven't had a day where everyone was on," said Sauer. "We will be a lot more rested going into this weekend and we will also change the execution of a few runners to deal with the move up to 8,000. Choctaw Trails is a challenging course, but it's usually a great field to run against."
 
Senior Brandon Lewis-Graham is NSU's top male runner, leading the Demons in all three races this fall. The young Lady Demons squad has had a group of pacesetters this fall.
 
"The women are in a good spot. I want to see Isabella Hudson and Emily Heard try to mix it up with the top 30 this weekend," said Sauer. "Last year at conference, we ran well as a team but needed to have a bigger presence near the front to displace some points. If we want to move up in the conference we can't just have a fast team average, we need to also play the numbers game and make every point count."
 
At last year's Mississippi College invitational, the Lady Demons finished fourth as a team while 2017 senior Joshua Wilkins led the Demons with an individual second-place mark in the men's 8,000 with a time of 25:26.18 and a team finish of fifth. ULM swept both genders as a team last season.
 
The only remaining competition on the schedule is the Southland Championships which will take place in Lake Charles on Oct. 26 at 9:30 a.m.