SAN ANTONIO—The Northwestern State cross country teams battled the conditions and the competition on a rainy day at the Southland Conference Championships on Friday at the Windcrest Golf Club.

Like the duo has all year, Ceyda Bayur and John Klein led the charge for each gender.

Bayur, a sophomore from Eskieshir, Turkey, finished in 40^th place out of 67 finishers, clocking a time of 24:12.5 in the 6k race.

As a team, the women placed ninth out of the 10 teams in the conference. They placed the same as in 2022 but shaved 14 points off last year's total (260 in 2023, 274 in 2022).

Despite the conditions, freshman Lalaina Wood set a collegiate best in the meet, running a 27:15.9, placing 59^th overall and third among Lady Demon finishers.

"I was happy with performance from the women today," second-year head coach Dillon Dawson said. "Lalaina stepped up for sure. She has come a long way since the start of the season and I look forward to what she can do as she continues to work hard."

Leah Thompson was the second Lady Demon to cross the finish line, placing 51^st with a time of 26:00.0.

A pair of freshmen rounded out the scoring for the NSU women. Samantha Todaro (28:28.4) placed 63^rd and Makaya Damon (30:22.1) finished in 65^th place.

Nia Clatworthy of Lamar won the individual 6k race with a time of 21:12.9, three seconds ahead of Houston Christian's Arlette Concepcion, who came in second.

Clatworthy led the Cardinals, which claimed their first women's cross country title since 2014. Lamar placed three of the top eight finishers in the race and five of the top 18.

On the men's side, Klein (28:54.5) placed 56^th out of 78 total finishers to pace the Demons in the 8k race.

Brian Norton, a freshman from Trophy Club, Texas, came in second among Demon finishers, leading a string of three consecutive finishers from NSU.

Norton placed 60^th in the race with a time of 29:32.6. The freshman was followed closely by teammates Korbin Shumate (29:34.5) and Conner Mackie (29:51.9), who finished 61^st and 62^nd, respectively.

Waylon Wright rounded out the scoring for the Demons, placing 77^th with a time of 33:05.6.

After trailing for the first two laps of the three-lap race, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Mathayo Bundotich (24:17.6) overtook UIW's Griffin Neal (24:27.9) to win the men's individual title.

That was significant, as TAMUCC edged out UIW by a single point to win the team title, its first ever cross country team title in school history.