CLINTON, Miss.-- The Northwestern State cross country teams wrapped up the 2018 regular season at the Mississippi College invitational on a high note with both teams finishing in the top third of a huge field of competition for either gender.

The Demons finished in sixth place out of 22 teams as senior Brandon Lewis-Graham led the way individually at 15th in an 8,000 meter run amongst a group of 163 runners with a time of 26:25.77. The Lady Demons again paced relatively closely to each other as the group finished in fifth place with four of five scorers placing inside 50th out of 143 runners on 20 teams. The final scorer was not far outside at 53rd.

"That was the most competitive both teams have run this year," said head coach Chris Sauer. We love coming to this course and had a lot of athletes put themselves out there and had some great results to show for it."

Lewis Graham was followed across the finish line by Yannik Gerland (21st-26:35.00), Cody Robinson (35th-27:12.00), Darius Groves (47th-27:36.18), and Clay Casner (64th-28:11.06). The team combined for 172 points with a total time of 2:16:00.01, 58 seconds faster than the average time last season at the same meet.

"I think we should have been one or two places higher, but for a lot of them it was their first 8,000. Brandon was a bit disappointed with his race but it's still a personal record on this course; he has more in the tank," said Sauer. Yannik and Cody both had phenomenal races. It's nice to see things starting to click for them. Every single guy either ran their best 8,000, or their best time on this course."

The women were, once again, led by Isabella Hudson in 18th place with a time of 19:52.93 in the 5,000 run. The sophomore has finished all four races this season as the Lady Demons' top finisher as her team tallied 149 points, losing out on the tie-breaker with Grambling. Rounding out the final four scorers were Emily Blanchard (22nd-20:05.53), Jasmine Dansby (33rd-20:28.19), Emily Heard (40th-20:51.01), and Kenanna Osby (53rd-21:32.26). Today's performances by Blanchard and Dansby gives them their second highest finish on the year while Hudson tied her second best.

"The girls ran a very bold race. We wanted to go into this trying to be more competitive and got exactly that," said Sauer. "Isabella Hudson, Emily Blanchard, and Jasmine Dansby all got every possible second out of themselves today. I'm really impressed with how they went for it right from the gun. There are some small nagging injuries that they they've finally gotten past. By conference, I think we'll have a much better look at what our full scoring group can do."

Southeastern Louisiana claimed the women's team title by a large margin, scoring 39 points compared to second-place William Carey University's 102. Louisiana Tech edged out a men's team victory with 50 points, with SELA close behind with 58.

Up next for NSU cross country will be the 2018 Southland Conference Championships in Lake Charles on Oct 26.