LAKE CHARLES – Sophomore Isabella Hudson leads a young squad of Northwestern State Lady Demons runners into the Southland Conference Cross Country Championship meet on Friday morning at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex.  
 
The ladies kick off the championship event with a 6,000 meter race, the longest distance of any women's competition for NSU this season. Action is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. on the course, about five miles from the McNeese campus.
 
The NSU women have four straight top five finishes including a first-place finish at the Louisiana Tech Mook Duals in Ruston. A pair of fifth-place team marks in the last two outings placed them in the upper-third of the enormous meets, which combined had 34 teams and 239 runners in action.
 
Though the Lady Demons' season can be categorized as a collective team effort, Hudson has been the top finisher in each meet, highlighted by her third-place performance at the Louisiana Tech Mook Duals.     
 
Head cross country coach Chris Sauer says the NSU women are in a familiar position as they were last season, only with a bunch of new faces on the roster.
 
"The women are in a great spot to take some steps forward. Last year we had some similar times coming into the conference meet. This year we just happened to be doing it with girls who are all two to three years younger. Isabella and Emily Blanchard have both come a long way this season. I have no worries about either of them competing hard in this meet," said Sauer.
 
"This is the first 6k for a lot of them, but they've done a great job all season putting themselves out there without going over the edge. I think they'll handle the longer distance well. Ever since their win in Ruston, every girl has only thought about the team. I can't ask for a lot more than that."
 
Freshmen Kirstin Elrod, Emily Blanchard, Jasmine Dansby, and Keanna Osby along with junior Emily Heard have consistently joined Hudson in scoring throughout the season.
 
In last year's 13-team conference meet, the Lady Demons finished 11^th. Abilene Christian won the Southland crown a season ago on its own home turf and had the top three individual finishers. It was the Wildcats' second women's team title in three years.