LAKE CHARLES  –  Senior Brandon Lewis-Graham is expected to set the pace again for the Northwestern State men's cross country team Friday in the season's most important meet, as the Demons head to the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex for the third time this season to run in the 2018 Southland Conference Championships.
 
The men will run an 8,000 meter race beginning at 9:30 a.m. at a venue five miles from the campus of the host school, McNeese. The distance matches their longest run of the year, equaling the duration at the Mississippi College Invitational earlier this month.
 
In four meets, NSU has finished in sixth place, fifth place on two occasions, and took silver at the Louisiana Tech Mook Duals last month. At Tech, Lewis-Graham was the individual champion in a four-mile contest with a career best 20:28.5 mark. The senior was voted Southland male cross country athlete of the week for his winning performance in his hometown of Ruston.
 
Lewis-Graham should set the pace for the rest of his team's young pack on the conference stage, but head coach Chris Sauer expects other Demons to shine.  
 
"All October the men have been clicking both in training and in races. Obviously, Brandon has been consistent all year and we'll need him up front. But Yannik Gerland, Cody Robinson, and Darius Groves have all started to click and it showed at Mississippi College," said Sauer.
 
 In last year's conference title meet, the Demons finished 11^th with 2017 senior standout Joshua Wilkins placing sixth out of 92 runners. It was the best finish at the Southland Championships by a Demon since 2003.
 
Sauer has hopes that Lewis-Graham and his youthful teammates can produce an improved showing in this year's conference meet.
 
"We want to see this team place higher than last year and that can't happen from just one runner. We are going to need someone in that group to take the next step and it'll make all the difference in how we place," he said. "We've raced in Lake Charles in some bad conditions already this season, so they know what to expect. We just need to show up on race day and compete for the full 8,000."
 
 
The league's powerhouse program, Lamar, took the 2017 crown with 42 points and a tiebreaker win over McNeese. LU's Jamie Crowe looks to repeat as individual champion. Last season's win was the Cardinals' fifth straight championship and their 11^th in the last 12 tries.