HOUSTON, Texas—Continued improvement is the theme for the Northwestern State cross country teams as they back into the state of Texas for the Rice Invitational.

The race begins at 6:45 on Friday for the women, while the men run at 7:10.

It is the first time NSU is going to Rice in cross country since 2014.

"Everyone shows up with a great attitude and has been responding really well to the training so far," head coach Dillon Dawson said. "Even after the first week of September, I've already seen some pretty big improvements from a handful of the athletes in just a short amount of time."

In total, 13 schools in both men and women are taking part in the meet with 12 schools sending both genders.

NSU is one of four Southland Conference teams to take part in the meet, joining Houston Christian, Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, all of which are sending both men and women.

"Going into this meet, there will be a handful of teams from the Southland taking part," Dawson said. "One thing I'd like to see is how we stack up to those teams at this point in the season."

In the last meet at the Early Bird Opener, the Lady Demons were led by a pair of returners, Ceyda Bayur and Leah Thompson.

After missing much of last year's cross country season, Bayur ran the 4k at Lamar, posting a 15:34.2, placing 28^th, which was the best place of any athlete for NSU in the meet.

Thompson, a junior from DeRidder, Louisiana, posted her best collegiate time in the 4k, running a 16:12.6, besting her previous best mark in the event by more than three minutes, when she ran a 19:42.6 as a freshman at the Louisiana Tech Mook 4 in 2021.

Four Lady Demons made their collegiate debuts in Beaumont, Texas, in the first meet of the season. Lalaina Wood (17:18.61), Makaya Damon (18:10.36), Samantha Todaro (18:19.15) and Mary Jane Leblac (20:08.44) all aim to improve on their marks as they run in their second collegiate meets.

On the men's side, John Klein took home a 37th place finish (19:37.15) out of 51 participants in the 6k. Conner Mackie finished just behind Klein, placing 42nd with a 20:03.41.

Klein finished just behind his best time at NSU in the event of 19:34.6, set at the McNeese Season Opener in 2022.

The Norton brothers finished back-to-back in the first meet of the season, as freshman Brian Norton (21:24.58) placed 49th and older brother Robert Norton (22:02.42), a junior, took 50th.

Following the Rice Invitational, NSU stays in-state for its next meet, heading to Baton Rouge for the LSU Invitational on Sept. 15.