CLINTON, Mississippi—Following a two-week break from competitive meets against outside competition, the Northwestern State men's and women's cross country teams head to Mississippi for their final meet before the Southland Conference championships, taking part in the Watson Meet on campus of Mississippi College.

The men's 8k race begins at 7:30 a.m. which will be followed by the women running the 6k at 8:15 a.m.

"I feel good about the team going into this meet," head coach Dillon Dawson said. "This will be the first time they will be racing at the distances they will be racing at in the conference championships, so these past few weeks, we put an emphasis on pacing ourselves throughout the race. Since the run is longer, you have to pace yourselves in how you race."

Alongside NSU, 28 schools are participating in the meet. NSU is one of two SLC teams participating, being joined by Southeastern Louisiana.

"This race gives us another opportunity to go against some quality competition," Dawson said. "We have some pretty good teams in our conference, so competing in a meet like the quality of teams we'll see will help them get in that mode and ready to race against quality people."

Ceyda Bayur and John Klein have led the women's and men's cross country teams, respectively.

Bayur, a sophomore from Eskieshir, Turkey, has been the leader in every meet so far for the Lady Demons. While she has yet to run a 6k so far as a collegiate, she ran an NSU best with a 19:10.51 in the 5k last time out at the Lake Charles Toyota Cowboy Stampede, finishing 11^th out of 63 runners in the meet.

Leah Thompson also continued a strong season, posting a collegiate best in the 5k last time out at McNeese, running a 20:10.44 to place 26^th.

Klein, a native of Callisburg, Texas, ran a 21:27.37 last time out in Lake Charles in the 4-mile race to place 21st out of 58 finishers. Like Bayur on the women's side, Klein has been the leader for the men in their races.

At Mississippi College, Dawson is looking for the teams to pace themselves with the increased distance at the meet.

"Of course, we are looking to see improvement as we head into this meet," Dawson said. "But one thing I really would like to see is just a patient race, especially with the men getting the bump up to an 8k. I have been stressing that you can't go crazy the first one or two miles because there is still a whole lot of racing left."

Following the meet, NSU takes a week off before traveling for the SLC championships, which take place Oct. 27 on the campus of Incarnate Word.