BATON ROUGE—The Northwestern State field athletes saw the success of the track athletes in the first three meets and decided to rule the day themselves.

In the final meet before the Southland Conference Championships, NSU had nine athletes place in the top five, including a pair of personal bests, in the LSU Twilight on Friday at the Carl Maddox Field House.

"It was a very good day," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "We accomplished most of the things we wanted to in this last meet. It might not show up in the results, but it did in the technique and effort. A lot of confidence was gained so hopefully they can use it next week for conference. I am very happy with this effort."

Sanaria Butler continued her strong performance in her freshman campaign, as she finished first in women's triple jump, posting a distance of 39-11.5.

Karlyn Trahan placed fifth in the women's pole vault, clearing 11-7.75.

In the women's shot put, NSU had two of the top three. Camitra Mackey placed second, tossing a personal-best 46-1.50. Deanmonique Granville placed third with a distance of 43-1.75. Tulane's Bella Gonzalez won the event with an LSU meet record 68-10.

Two more finished in the top five in the women's weight throw. Bernesha Knowles finished third with a 49-7.25 throw, while Olivia Valliere earned a personal-best 47-6.50, which landed her in fifth place.

On the men's side, Diamante Gumbs finished fourth in the weight throw with a distance of 57-6.50 . Tarajh Hudson placed seventh with a 51-0.25.

In the men's shot put, Djimon Gumbs and Justin Craft each finished in the top four. Djimon Gumbs tossed a 58-10, which was second in the event, only to LSU's Claudio Romero, who threw a 59-3. Craft had a 46-2 in the shot put, placing fourth.

Keagan Brousard Alex Norton each recorded top-10 finishes in the long jump and high jump, respectively. Brousard registered a ninth-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 19-10.75, while Norton placed seventh in the high jump with a 5-10.75.

On the track, Vanessa Balde finished third in the women's 60-meters preliminaries with a time of 8.74. Jessica Pitcher clocked in with a time of 9.26 for a 14^th-place finish.

Out of 43 finishers, NSU placed five in the top 29 in the 60-meter dash preliminaries. Vanessa Balde led the way again, placing 11^th with a time of 7.69. Victoria Byrd (7.85), Maygan Shaw (7.86) and Jessica Pitcher (7.98) and Madison Brown (8.09) also finished in the top 29. Pitcher's time was a personal best.

On the men's side, Taj Morris posted a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.30, placing sixth.

The Demons had four finishers inside the top 19 out of 47 finishers, including Dylan Swain, who finished seventh to qualify for the finals.

Swain ran a 6.90 in the prelims to be one of eight athletes to qualify. Justin Walden (6.97), Cyrus Jacobs (7.01) and Destine Unique-Scott (7.01) rounded out the Demons in the top 19 finishers.

Next up for the Demons and Lady Demons are the SLC Championships. The two-day event begins Feb. 26 in Birmingham.