HUMBLE, Texas – To win a conference team track title, sometimes points have to come from the unlikeliest of places.

Northwestern State scored 10 points in the men's javelin from student-athletes who've never thrown the javelin at the Division I level.

The surprise javelin points highlighted a day in which NSU scored 24 points overall Friday and sit in a tie for third place after the first day of the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships.

Junior Charles, who can add the adjective thrower along with sprinter in front of his name, captured bronze in the javelin with a throw of 193-4.

Djimon Gumbs actually is a thrower with specialties in the shot put and discus, but Gumbs garnered fifth place with a throw of 181-4.

"Junior's been practicing about a week, and both he and Djimon just wanted to come out and help the team," said NSU coach Mike Heimerman. "Both threw the javelin a little bit in junior college.

"Junior played around with the javelin one time last year in practice, and we've teased him about it. He didn't even have spikes on, he just threw in his tennis shoes. Junior had a little bit of an approach while (Djimon) just had a three-step approach. It's amazing what they did."

Charles launched his career best throw on his third attempt, falling short of silver by just 16 inches.

Gumbs' farthest toss came on his final attempt as he locked up fifth place and four points.

If twin brother Diamante Gumbs were to set foot on the podium on the first day, the sophomore was going to need a personal best hammer throw on his final attempt.

Gumbs came through, tossing a 176-9 to snatch bronze in the hammer and send the Demons to a solid start in NSU's first event. He was .01 meters shy of silver as Southeastern's Terell Webb threw 53.89 meters (Gumbs was 53.88), who made his throw on his last attempt as well to knock Gumbs to third.

Gumbs' mark ranks third-all time in NSU history.

"Diamante was doing some good things, but he was passive," Heimerman said. "I told him exactly what I wanted on the last throw, and he executed and stepped up."

The Demons got eight expected points from long jumper Nikaoli Williams, who claimed silver with a personal best 25-8, which also solidifies his hold on an NCAA East Preliminaries spot.

Williams chased Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Trpimir Siroki throughout the meet before Siroki ripped off a 25-8.25. Williams countered with a huge personal record, falling just a quarter inch shy of gold.

"Today was a day where we got beat by centimeters, but Nikaoli had a huge day as did the whole men's team," Heimerman said. "Nik and (Siroki) were great in the way they interacted off each other, but now he has a lot of energy going into regionals.

"As a team, we were slated to score 12 points and we scored 24, even though there were some events where we could have gotten even more points."

The women sit in fourth place overall with 14 points but must track down a McNeese squad that went for 60 points on the opening day.

The women's javelin scored a total of 12 points as three Lady Demons finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Ashley Duffus grabbed fourth with a 133-3 with Akira Phillip hot on her tail with a season best 127-8.

Carnitra Mackey saved her best for last, throwing a 123-6 on her final attempt to score three points.

In the hammer throw, Olivia Valliere posted a personal record to snag seventh place with a 139-3. The sophomore scored two points by besting her previous mark by six feet, landing it on her second throw to get into the finals.

The Lady Demons couldn't pick up any long jump points as Orsciana Beard and Jaslyn Smith missed the finals, finishing 16^th and 17^th, respectively.