BATON ROUGE—Death. Taxes. Ceyda Bayur and Leah Thompson running well at a cross country meet.

The duo continued to lead the Northwestern State cross country teams, each finishing in the top 25 at the LSU Invitational on Friday morning.

Bayur once again paced the Lady Demons, who were the only team to participate from NSU, running a 20:30.4 to place 20^th out of 49 finishers.

The sophomore shaved nearly a minute and a half off her collegiate best, beating the 21:55.0 she ran in the 5k last season at ULM.

Thompson finished right behind Bayur, finishing 25^th with a time of 21:31.8.

The meet concludes the first half of the cross country season.

"Overall, I thought it was a good meet," head coach Dillon Dawson said. "It was the women's first crack at a 5k this season and I think they responded well to the step up in distance.

"Considering we practice in the morning, I think the early start time for the race made for a more comfortable race setting for the ladies, especially coming off back-to-back evening races."

As a team, the NSU women finished with 128 points, placing fifth out of the seven competing teams. LSU dominated the meet, earning the top six finishers and placing first as a team with 15 points.

The top five finishers for each program earn points and the point total is those five finishers added up. The lower the score, the better.

A pair of freshmen, Samantha Todaro and Lalaina Wood, finished in back-to-back at 36^th and 37^th, respectively. Todaro ran a 24:00.6 and Wood clocked a 24:19.4.

Makaya Damon finished in 41^st place, running a time of 24:48.9, to round out the Lady Demons group.

The second half of the cross country season begins Sept. 23 when it remains in-state and runs at the Lake Charles Toyota Cowboy Stampede.