NATCHITOCHES—In his three years at Northwestern State, sprinter Destine-Unique Scott has been one of the elite sprinters in a program noted for its illustrious sprinter history.

He has the etched his name in the program record book on more than one occasion.

Scott is one of eight Northwestern State track & field seniors being honored, as they compete in the Leon Johnson NSU Invitational on Saturday, the final meet of their careers in front of the home crowd at the Walter P. Ledet Track & Field Complex.

"It's nice being able to compete at home," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "It is kind of a double-edged sword. When you host a meet, there is a lot of work to set up with officials and the facility, but it's nice knowing that when we're done with the meet, I can drive a few minutes and I am home in my living room enjoying the evening instead of getting on a bus and riding for home for the next four-to-seven hours.

"The kids also really love competing at home. God willing, we have some good weather and you'll some great performances out here."

The meet begins at 10 a.m. with the throwing events, starting with women's javelin and men's hammer throw.

The track events start at 1 p.m. with the 3000-meter steeplechase. Prior to the start of the track events, NSU will honor the eight seniors as well as the conference-winning indoor women's team, the first ever in program history to win the women's conference team title.

Scott is being honored, along with Dylan Swain, Kavacion Webster, Austin Simoneaux, Deonmonique Granville, Aarika Lister, Akira Phillip and Claudasha Watson.

Scott is a part of a 4x100 team that currently ranks 21^st in the country, tops in the conference and 10^th in school history with a time of 39.51, coming at the Battle on the Bayou. Among those on the team is Simoneaux, a fellow senior.

Individually, his specialty is the 400-meters, and few in the school's storied history have done the event any better.

His time of 46.77 in the event is 60^th nationally and tops in the Southland Conference. This time doesn't even crack his top three times in his career, as he holds three of the top seven times in the 400-meters in program history.

"Competing against so many great athletes brings out the best in me," Scott said. "If we're surrounded by so many great athletes, it just tells me that we need to be there at that level. There is no pressure and if we do everything we are supposed to do, we'll come out on top."

His 46.38 in last season's SLC Outdoor Championships earned him a gold medal in the event, one of his two golds, also earning one in the 2022 indoor season.

"Winning the 400-meter indoor conference last year has to be my favorite moment here," Scott said. "The reason for that being my top moment is that I was wanting to break 47-seconds for so long and to finally get it indoors gave me the momentum and confidence to know I was a great athlete."

Scott has earned eight total medals in his career, combining both outdoor and indoor, two of which came in this indoor season, earning a silver in both the 200 and 400. However, he won both events in the prelims and will be looking to take back his crown in the finals.

By his own admission, early in his career, he was a bit sluggish, so he decided to make a major change in his diet.

"A lot of people don't know, but after the 2021 season when I had my groin injury, I stopped eating meat," he said. "I felt like I was a little too heavy, so I wanted to change a lot of things. I changed my diet and I started waking up at 5:30 every morning. I just became more of a student of the game.

"A lot of people say when you stop eating meat, you lose energy. But for me, when cutting meat out of my diet, I felt more energized and I felt I was sleeping better. It just made me feel better both inside and outside the track."

While Scott has been at NSU for three years, Granville has been a Lady Demon for just this season, but she aims to make a similar impact.

"Transferring here, I was a bit scared and nervous at first," Granville said. "But fortunately, I was welcomed by an awesome group of throwers."

Granville came in with expectations following a season at Arkansas-Pine Bluff in which she placed third in the shot put and fourth in the hammer throw in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. She has not disappointed.

In the shot put this season, she ranks fifth in the SLC with a toss of 45-11.25 and 11^th in the hammer throw with a 135-2.

During the indoor season this year, she finished in the top six five times and earned points in the SLC championships for the conference-champion Lady Demons in both the shot put and weight throw, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

"Being a big part of a conference champion-winning team was something I was always looking forward to since I started collegiate track. It took awhile for me to get a ring, but now that I got one, nothing else matters other than getting another one."

In addition to NSU, fellow Louisiana schools UL Monroe, UL Lafayette, McNeese and Grambling will be in Natchitoches for the meet.