BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Last year the "glow-up" challenge became popular in mainstream media, inspiring others to transform their lives. A "glow-up" is a personal transformation for the better whether it's physical or mental. While she already had an impressive track and field career, Northwestern State junior Jasmyn Steels went through a track glow-up in the last year.
 
Now owning a No. 8 national ranking in the long jump, she's one of the top entries in any event as the Southland Conference Indoor Championships begin a two-day run Sunday at the Birmingham Crossplex.
 
Steels will battle the country's 11^th-best performer, senior Sarea Alexander of Incarnate Word, and the rest of the field Sunday at 5, aiming for her first Southland crown. Alexander won the 2018 Southland Outdoors long jump title at 21-5 ½ and has a 20-7 ¼ best indoors this season.
 
Steels emerged on the national scene with a 20-9 ¼ mark Feb. 8 that is tied for eighth in NCAA Division I.  It's 1 ¼ inch from breaking the school record set in 2004 by four-time All-American Stephanie Sowell. She has won each of her four long jump competitions in 2019, steadily improving from her opening 20-3 ¾ performance in each meet.
 
After a solid freshman season at NSU, Steels began to flash signs of her 2019 form during her sophomore campaign in 2018, scoring well in both the long and triple jumps at the conference indoor and outdoor meets, and most notably, qualifying for the NCAA East Preliminary Round outdoors in the long jump.
 
Steels took home multiple top-five finishes at indoor meets. She set a meet record and new career best in her hometown at the Texas A&M Ted Nelson Invitational with a jump of 19-9 ½ inches and was fourth in both the long and triple jump (39-7 ¾) at last year's Southland Indoor Championships.
 
She battled an ankle injury outdoors, but rounded into form at the right time. Sitting in eighth place going into her final attempt in the long jump at the Southland Outdoors, Steels soared to a then-personal record 20-0 ½, earning her second straight bronze medal at the conference outdoor championships.
 
A week later, she clinched her initial trip to the NCAA East Preliminary Round Championships, uncorking a 20-7 ¾ winning mark at the McNeese Last Chance Meet to record the region's 15^th-best leap last spring.
The College Station (Texas) Consolidated High School product capped the 2018 season by earning a spot on the Southland Conference Track and Field All-Academic Team. Steels has a 3.56 grade point average in psychology.
 
Steels began her track and field career in junior high when her coach placed her in the long jump and triple jump. He taught her the steps and told her to "just run and jump." Once she started competing, she realized she was naturally good at it and stuck with it.
 
She played every sport growing up but had to make a choice when she got to high school. She was torn between basketball and track, but she decided after her freshman year that track was what she "clicked" with. She was a seven-time state meet qualifier and was a top-25 national performer in the long jump and triple jump.
 
Settling in with the Lady Demons, her development continued. In her freshman season she had five top-five finishes and placed sixth at the SLC Indoor Championships in the triple jump, seventh in the long jump and 14^th in the high jump, scoring five points. She earned her first Southland medal outdoors with a third-place 19-4 ¾ long jump leap.
 
Last year at the Southland Indoor Championships she took fourth in the long jump and triple jump, scoring 10 points. Now, Steels is in the spotlight as the favorite in her specialty, but the team's scoring is her primary focus.
"My team is going to win and do great," Steels said. "I have no concerns from my teammates, jumpers, runners. I'm not worried about it."
 
Even though winning a medal is a great feeling, that's not what her sport is about for Steels. She focuses on each competition and being a consistent jumper. Most importantly, she takes the advice her coaches have given her throughout her career: have fun and do your best.
 
"You only get four years to do this," Steels said. "You just have to keep doing your best. It's worth it in the end."
 
Steels likely has another indoor competition ahead before her outdoor season begins. The nation's top 15 qualifiers in each event convene back in Birmingham May 9-10 for the NCAA Indoor Championships, and unless conference meets around the country produce a series of big marks, she will be in the field for her first national championship competition.