JACKSONVILLE, Florida—The Northwestern State 4x100 relay team nearly made nationals but finished 15^th on the third day of the NCAA East prelims.

NSU clocked a 40.10 in the relay, running in the sixth and final heat, barely missing the cut to go to nationals. The top 12 head to nationals in Austin next month.

The Demons were just beaten out in the heat by four power conference schools, all of which finished in the top 10 in the region.

In the 4x100 had one bad exchange," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "We had to make a change in the running order and the timing wasn't there for that exchange."

The cutoff time was 39.98, which was run by Alabama. Fellow Southland Conference member New Orleans was the first team out of the nationals picture, clocking in at 39.99.

The day began with the discus, as the Demons had three competitors in the event.

Djimon Gumbs fell short of his second consecutive trip to nationals, tossing a 172-5 to finish 33^rd.

It ended a stellar season for the junior, who broke the school record and British Virgin Islands record in the discus with a 205-11 in the outdoor season opener at the Cowboy Relays.

Tarajh Hudson finished just behind him with a throw of 171-5 to place 36^th and Diamante Gumbs' toss of 167-6 placed him 40^th in the event.

"Today was not a great day," Heimerman said. "It wasn't from lack of effort. It just wasn't our day. Conditions were not great at all but no one in the discus was clicking. Unfortunately, you can have a bad day and today was that day. Just unfortunate."

Competing in his first regionals with the Demons, Randy Kelly cleared 6-6.25 to tie for 34^th. The freshman missed his first attempt at the height but followed that by clearing it on the second attempt.

He was unable to clear 6-8.25 in the second round of jumps. Southeastern Louisiana's Slavko Stevic, who was the only jumper who finished higher than Kelly this season, tied for third clearing 7-0.25.

To cap off the day, the men's 4x400 relay team ran a 3:13.99 running into a stiff win, placing 22^nd out of the 24 participants.

"I thought the 4x4 ran well, but they just had 20+ mph winds to battle on the back stretch," Heimerman said. "I mean, you had almost every team run five to six seconds slower than normal."

NSU wraps up its time in Jacksonville when the women take center stage once again Saturday, as Sanaria Butler and Maygan Shaw take part in the 400-meter dash at 5:50 and are both part of the 4x400 relay team that will conclude the prelims at 7:45 p.m.