Final Complete Results

SAN ANTONIO – Record performances. Eight sprint wins. A repeat of De'Shalyn Jones' four gold medal haul.
 
Northwestern State's fastest competitors had a monster day Sunday as the Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships wrapped up. Despite not threatening for overall team championships – the Lady Demons were third with 101 points among 13 teams, and the Demons fifth at 78 points – there was a bumper crop of highlights to consider:

    - Jones again ran away with the meet's Female High Point Scorer as she duplicated her four-win total from her junior year, sweeping the 100  (11.44) and 200 (23.09, 0.06 off the meet record) and running legs on winning 4x100 (44.75, 0.08 back of the school record) and 4x400 (3:36.31, a stadium, meet and school record) relays.

    - In fact, Jones capped her Southland Conference career (she has NCAA East Regional competition ahead) by winning the last nine straight conference outdoor events she entered. The streak began at the 2016 Championships when she ran a leg on the first-place 4x400 relay, and shortly after she claimed her first individual gold medal by taking the 400 as a sophomore (in between those races, she didn't win the 200 in 2016).

    - Senior teammate Daeshon Gordon was runner-up for High Point Scorer with 22.5 points, adding a leg on the 4x100 relay to her impressive double in the hurdles. She set a wind-legal school record in her specialty, the 100 hurdles (13.14), and was equally dominant in the 400 hurdles (58.83).

    - Demon junior Micah Larkins tied both the school and meet records with his winning 10.12 100 meter dash into a slight headwind. He ran a leg on the Demons' gold-medal 4x100 relay (39.53) that broke a 29-year-old meet record, and clocked a 200 personal record in 20.54 (finishing fourth) while threatening the school mark with the third-fastest 200 by a Demon.
    - Senior teammate Amir James tied that 200 school record with his 20.47 that earned him a bronze. James also ran on the winning 4x100 foursome and was fourth in the 100 in 10.32.

    - After capturing five of six sprint championships last year, the Lady Demons won every one Sunday – Jones in the 100 and 200, sophomore Natashia Jackson in the 400, Gordon with both hurdles titles, and a sweep of the two relays.

    - Jackson and Gordon each snagged three golds. Jackson was in on both of the Lady Demons' relay wins along with her blistering 53.63 barely missing Jones' year-old mark of 53.61.

    - Along with James' record-setting third-place, three more bronze medal performances were of note: Josh Wilkins ran a 1500 PR of 3:49.83, Braneshia Payton-Howard repeated her third-place 100 hurdles finish in 13.51, and Cedric Paul collected yet another shot put medal with a 57-10 ½ mark.
 
The Sam Houston men and women rolled to team championships. Stephen F. Austin trailed SHSU 158-110, to NSU's 101, in the women's scoring. On the men's side, Sam Houston won with 122, trailed by Abilene Christian (107), SFA (90), McNeese (83), NSU (78) and Southeastern Louisiana in the top half of the standings.
 
Both Northwestern squads posted 30 points in the short sprints. The Demons rang up 18 in the 100 with Larkins' win, James in fourth, Tre'Darius Carr seventh (10.63) and Michael McGruder eighth (10.75). The Lady Demons registered 17 in the 200 with Jones, Jackson fourth (24.02) and freshman Deja Moore (24.19) seventh.
 
Other NSU competitors contributed to the scoring, though not in as spectacular fashion.
 
Collin Milton was fourth (203-0) in the men's javelin, where 2016 4x100 All-American Ty Shilling capped his Demon days by scoring a point with his eighth-place finish that was in its own right, quite spectacular. Shilling competed with a torn ligament in his throwing elbow, made one throw, and marked 194-5, just five feet off his PR, and good enough to score in his final conference meet.
 
The Lady Demons notched eight triple jump points from Fabriana Nation (fifth, 39-6), Jasmyn Steels (sixth, 39-5 ¾) and Brooke Petkovich (eighth, 38-9 ½). The Demons scored six in the event by Quindarrius Thompson (fifth, 49-3 ½) and Ceaser Stephens (seventh, 49-1).
 
Charlie Milton ran 54.67 for sixth in the men's 400 hurdles.
 
More seventh places came from Jessica Coleman (women's 800, 2:16.29), Destiney Myers (shot put, 45-11 ¼), Tremayne Flagler (men's 110 hurdles, 14.66) and Kyrin Tucker in two events, the shot put (55-6 ½) and the discus (170-10).
 
Scoring a point by taking eighth were Lady Demon freshman Reagan Darbonne in the pole vault (11-5 ¾), Cori Runnels in the women's shot (45-0 ¼).
 
Some NSU competitors will head to Lake Charles next weekend for a last-chance qualifying meet for the upcoming NCAA East Regionals in Tampa late this month.