BOSTON—Following a week off, the Northwestern State track and field teams head to the northeast as the Demons and Lady Demons participate in two meets in two days in Massachusetts, beginning Friday.

NSU takes part in the Crimson Elite in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday before making the short drive to Boston for the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite on Saturday.

The meets provide a view of the city that will hold the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

A total of 35 NSU athletes are heading to Massachusetts.

"This will help us if any of our athletes go to nationals," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "We're flying, so they have to get used to the air travel. It gets them ready in that aspect. It will get them ready for the shell-shock of going to one of the oldest and biggest cities. We have a lot of kids from the Dallas and Houston areas, which are big metroplexes. It's always just different going up to the northeast."

It will be an event with a wide variety of schools, which will provide a major test for the teams.

"There is going to be a lot of great competition and competition we've never seen or don't see often with some of those schools since we don't travel up there and a lot of them don't travel this way," Heimerman said. "It will be nice to see a lot of competition we haven't ever seen before."

The meets are the third and fourth meets of the indoor season for NSU of the five prior to the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.

After a fantastic freshman campaign, one that earned him a silver medal in the outdoor high jump, Randy Kelly has built on that success and has had a terrific start to his 2024 indoor season.

Kelly, a native of Blythewood, S.C., cleared an indoor-best 6-11.5 in high jump in the season opener at the LSU Tiger on Jan. 12 to take the top spot, even over Southeastern Louisiana's Slavko Stevic. He followed that performance up with one in which he cleared 6-9.5 at the Samford Invitational.

NSU has the top time in the SLC in the 60-meter dash for both the men and women.

On the men's side, Keonte Gaines' 6.70 at Samford, leading the way, as the Demons have two times in the top five. He is joined by Tavis Wilson, who ran a 6.80 at Samford, sitting in fifth.

Sileena Farrell, who is coming off arguably her best career performance at Samford, ran a 7.54 to make it the top time in the SLC so far this indoor season. Overall, four Lady Demons are in the top 10 and seven are in the top 16.

After dominating in the 400 a season ago, Sanaria Butler has done the same in the indoor 200 this season. At Samford, she ran a 24.10 to win the event and become the leader in the SLC for fastest time. NSU has the top two in the 200, as Maygan Shaw's 24.38 and Samford was second in the meet and the second-fastest time in the conference this season.

"The track over at Boston is supposed to be really, really, fast and we're going to take advantage of it," Heimerman said. "The goal is to go out and run some great times and get us ready for the next meet at Texas Tech and then indoor conference."

The Lady Demons also have the top two in the pole vault, led by 2023 outdoor gold medalist Madison Brown, who cleared 12-6.25. Annemarie Broussard, who is returning from an injury that forced her to miss the 2023 outdoor season, has the second-best jump in the SLC, clearing 12-0.5.

Ianna Roach, a transfer from Iowa, has the leading throw in the conference in the shot put with a 48-2.75, which she recorded at Samford.

"The athletes are really starting to believe in themselves. They are learning more about themselves every day during practice—what they can handle, what they can endure—and a lot of them are just scratching the surface of their talent."

Following the trip to the Bay State, NSU stays a bit closer to home for its next meet, as it competes in the Jarvis Scott Open on the campus of Texas Tech, a two-day meet that begins Feb. 9. It is the final tune-up for the SLC Indoor Championships, which take place starting Feb. 25 in Birmingham, Alabama.