COLLEGE STATION – It was a banner day for Northwestern State on the first day of the Texas A&M Invitational with 12 new career best marks or times set across four field and one track event.

"It was a really good day," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "The coaches had their athletes ready to compete and they were excited to get out there and do it on a big stage like Texas A&M. They were all really amped up to compete and I loved the effort all day."

It was the field events that took center stage for the Lady Demons on Friday beginning with the first event of the day the women's discus. Senior Kristin McDuffie had two separate throws that bested her previous career mark with her second of the day, coming in at 158-8, landing her in fifth overall with the fourth best throw in the Southland Conference this season.

With McDuffie setting the tone for the day early on, the performances continued to improve throughout the day.

Freshmen Karlyn Trahan and Madison Brown and transfer Parish Kitto all cleared the 12-foot mark in the pole vault for the first time at NSU.

The Demon men earned the first two top-five finishes of the day in the long jump with a pair of season-best jumps from freshman Nikaoli Williams and junior Markeit Steverson. Williams landed at 22-8 on his second attempt of the day while Steverson came in at 24-3 on his third. Steverson earned a third-place finish at the meet and improved his top-five conference standing jump in the process.

In the javelin it was a career best throw for Cole Spooner of 201-1 that earned him a fourth-place finish.

The longest event of the day, the women's long jump with 36 total competitors, saw, not surprisingly, Jasmyn Steels and Lauren-Ashley Clarke rise to the challenge for the Lady Demons.

Clarke entered the meet with a career best jump of 19-8 that she set on the opening week of the outdoor season. She ended the day with three jumps over 20 feet including her new career best mark of 20-10.75 that came on her final attempt of the day.

"She's really still just learning the long jump," Heimerman said. "Before this year she was just a triple and high jumper but Coach (Tyron) Stewart said she can long jump and he was definitely right. She's continuing to evolve each meet and it's still a work in progress but she's a talented young lady and has what you call in the jumps world – bounce."

Clarke's mark gives her the second-best jump in the conference on the season, behind Steels' SLC-leading 21-5.25 jump from two weeks ago at the Texas Relays.

What Heimerman has referred to as the backbone of the team, the NSU sprinters took the track at the end of the day carrying the momentum from the field results with them.

Natashia "Speedy" Jackson led the Lady Demons with the second best 200 run of her career clocking in at 23.56 just 1/100^th of a second off her best time and the first sub-24 run in the distance this season by a SLC athlete.

"It was a loaded field, and she ran a great race," Heimerman said. "She's a smart young lady and her and Coach (Adam) Pennington had a strategy and she executed it almost flawlessly. It was great race from her leading a group that did a fabulous job. Jayla Fields, Aarika Lister and Diana Granados all had great races and finished back-to-back-to-back. Everybody was either season best or personal best. It was really, really good."

Fields and Granados both had new career best times in their section at 24.28 and 24.37 respectively.

On the men's side of the 200 four Demons set new career bests in the same race. Freshman Ebenezer Aggrey paced the run with a time of 21.46 with Daveon Rogers (22.06), Austin Simoneaux (22.10) and Dejon Blake (22.28) each setting new best times.

It was Kennedy Harrison's run in the final race of the day for NSU that bookended the uber-successful first day. His time of 20.83 was a easily a new career best and just the third sub-21 run in the conference this season.

"That was phenomenal from him," Heimerman said of Harrison's time. "And we had some good times from the other guys as well. Ebenezer Aggrey won his section, and it was the first time he'd ever run the 200. It was a great day for the sprinters."

NSU will carry the momentum of the day into another full schedule of events on Saturday with 18 total events scheduled for competition.

"They're all excited because they have more events tomorrow," Heimerman said. "The ones that didn't compete today or the ones that have other events tomorrow they want to get the sort of recognition that the ones today saw. We've got a lot of events tomorrow, it's supposed to be another beautiful day and I'm looking forward to it."