BATON ROUGE—For the third straight outdoor meet to begin the season, the Northwestern State track and field teams stay in-state.

This time around, it is a trip to the state's capital for the Keyth Talley Invitational on the campus of LSU.

The meet begins at 9:30 with the field events, starting with the women's weight throw. The running events begin at 1 p.m. with the women's 4x100 relay.

A total of 14 schools are participating, including powerhouses LSU and Wisconsin, the Tiger Olympians and fellow Southland Conference schools New Orleans, Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana.

"Coaches always get greedy," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "They want to see faster times and further distances. We'll see more athletes compete in their specialty events this weekend and maybe some further distances and great competition in the field events. Consistency is the key in this meet. We want to be consistent with where we're at and the big throws and big jumps will come."

The NSU track teams are coming off an impressive performance at the Louisiana Classics, one in which multiple athletes broke conference or facility records.

NSU's 4x100 relay team broke the school record and tied the Southland Conference mark, running a 44.59, topping the previous mark (44.68), which was set in 2000 by former SLC member UT Arlington.

If that weren't enough, the 4x400 team broke the stadium record, running a 3:39.17, finishing better than six seconds over second-place UL Lafayette.

"For where we are with the trainings with all of our groups, all the coaches are pleased with where we are at," Heimerman said. "We went to Lafayette to focus on the relay teams and they both delivered.

Diamante Gumbs broke the national record of his home country of the British Virgin Islands in the hammer throw, tossing a 185-4 in the discus set a stadium record.

He won the discus with a personal-best throw of 184-8, which is also a facility record.

On the women's side in the discus, Kaitlyn Washington placed second with a 159-8.

More than 30 individual NSU athletes rank in the top five in the SLC in the events.

One of those is Washington, who leads the conference in the discus. Her distance from the Louisiana Classic is more than eight feet better than the second-place mark of 151-3 from teammate Shakera Kirk.

"Last weekend was a really big confidence booster for me since I always knew I could throw those big marks," Washington said. "Having the big distance come at an actual meet was a huge boost for me going forward as I head into this meet and the rest of the season."

Washington, a native of Broussard, has begun the outdoor season strong, coming in second in the discus in each of her last two meets.

Another athlete off to a strong start is newcomer Tavis Wilson.

The transfer from Bethune-Cookman, Wilson made an impact in his first outdoor meet as a Demon.

At the Louisiana Classic, Wilson ran a 10.45 in the 100-meter dash. That time not only was second at the meet but is also the second-best time in the conference in the outdoor season.

"In practice, I've really been working on my start," Wilson said. "I've been working on that so much, I am at the point where I can't get it wrong. If I continue to perfect that, I'll continue to run faster times and everything will get better as well."

Cyrus Jacobs also ranks in the top five in the event for the men.

Following the meet, the track teams make the journey to the state of Texas for the Texas Relays and Bobcat Invitational.