BATON ROUGE—Randy Kelly claimed the top spot in the men's high jump and 13 personal records were set by Northwestern State track and field athletes at the LSU Purple Tiger on Friday to begin the indoor season.

"Overall, the team did very well," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "For really only being back for a week and not getting to practice a couple of those days because of the weather, I was very happy. They did well. There were lots of good things but still things that need to be fixed. Like I said, I am very pleased and am just happy to be competing."

Kelly, who cleared 6-11.5, took the top spot over one of the top jumpers in the country, Southeastern Louisiana's Slavko Stevic. Stevic also jumped 6-11.5, but Kelly claimed the win by clearing 6-11.5 on his second jump and Stevic cleared it on his third.

"Randy is one of the most competitive people on the team," associate head coach Adam Pennington said. "He doesn't like losing and today that was his goal. He's worked extremely hard to jump this PR."

In that 600-meter run, Tranasia Jones (1:38.03), a transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi finished second in program history in the event, only trailing Janiel Moore's 1:37.71, set in 2020.

Jones paced the Lady Demons in the event, finishing fourth overall. Finney (1:40.71) placed ninth, Kahiyah Anderson (1:47.10) finished 14^th and Makaya Damon (1:52.94) came in 19^th.
On the women's side in the high jump, Raven-Symone Jarrett placed sixth, clearing 5-3.25.

Sanaria Butler built on her sensational freshman season, beginning her sophomore campaign with a strong start, placing second in the long jump out of 21 competitors with a jump of 18-11.75, which is an indoor collegiate best.

Victoria Byrd also posted an indoor collegiate best in the women's long jump, leaping 17-9.75, which placed eighth.

"Victoria and Sileena (Farrell) looked great," Pennington said. "The goal was to win the heats and they did just that. Both ladies have had great falls and will continue to get better each meet."

Newcomer Samari Finney finished sixth in the event with an 18-2.50. Jaslyn Smith (16-9.75), Abria Paul (16-4.25) and Jarrett (15-8.25) finished 12^th, 14^th and 17^th, respectively.

Butler also posted a strong day in the women's triple jump, recording a 39-6.50, which was fourth out of 11. Jaslyn Smith (37-4.5) finished eighth and Paul (35-01) came in 11^th.

In the men's long jump, Andrew Gilreath (23-1.75) came in third out of 20 competitors and newcomer Tim Pelkmans (22-3.5) placed eighth.

Newcomers came through in a big way in their first appearance for NSU in the women's shot put, as Iowa transfer Ianna Roach (46-2.5) came in third out of 21 and Iowa Western CC transfer Shakera Williams (44-9) finished right behind Roach in fourth.

Justin Craft posted a personal best 51-3.5 to finish sixth out of 17 in the men's shot put.

Coming back from an injury that forced her to miss the entire outdoor season in 2023, Annemarie Broussard cleared 12-00 to finish third in the women's pole vault.

Diamante Gumbs placed fourth in the men's weight throw, tossing a 60-7.25, while Tarajh Hudson finished 11^th with a 49-3.5.

On the women's side in the weight throw, Bernesha Knowles (51-6.25) placed seventh out of 21. Kaitlyn Washington (49-8.5) also advanced to the finals, finishing ninth.

On the track, in the women's 60-meter hurdles, Vanessa Balde not only posted one personal best, but she set another personal best in the finals as well. Balde placed fourth out of 32 in the semifinals by running an 8.59 to become one of the eight to advance to the finals, where she ran an 8.56, placing sixth.

"Vanessa has had a great fall," Pennington said. "Her training up until this point has been better than ever, so we expected her to have a great day. I'm just happy to see her get a double PR and start the season off with some confidence."

Balde was one of four Lady Demons to compete in the 60-meter hurdles, as she was joined by Jessica Pitcher (9.19), Madison Brown (9.21) and Jarrett (9.21), who placed 19^th, 20^th and 21^st, respectively.

On the men's side in the 60 meters, Pelkmans (8.77) placed 16^th.

In the men's 600-meter run, Cyrus Jacobs came in fifth among 35 participants, running a 1:23.09. Robert Norton (1:26.89) placed 15^th, Desmond Duncan (1:27.20) finished 17^th and Evan Wilson (1:28.82) came in 23^rd.

Four Lady Demons finished in the top 20 of 59 runners in the 60-meter dash, led by Sileena Farrell's 7.69 to place 12^th. Maygan Shaw set a personal best by running a 7.78 to finish 18^th and Jessica Pitcher's personal best 7.79 tied for 19^th. She tied with teammate Victoria Byrd.

On the men's side in the event, five finished in the top 31, led by newcomer Tavis Wilson, whose 6.94 finished 20^th. Galen Loyd placed 23^rd with a personal best 6.97, one of three personal bests for the Demons in the event. Mikkel Johansson (7.01) and Gilreath (7.04) also posted personal bests. Newcomer Jaysaun Smith finished 29^th with a 7.02.

John Klein (4:31.79) and Leah Thompson (6:03.20) each posted personal bests in the men's and women's miles.

The track and field teams are back in action in Birmingham, Alabama, at the two-day Samford Invitational, which begins on Jan. 19.