LAKE CHARLES—Coming off a week off following two top three finishes in the Southland Conference Indoor Championships, including the second consecutive women's team title, the Northwestern State track teams kick off its outdoor schedule with the Cowboy Relays.

The meet takes place Saturday on the campus of McNeese.

The men's hammer throw kicks off the meet at 9 a.m.

NSU is mostly bringing throwers and distance runners to Lake Charles.

Several schools are taking part in the meet, including UL Lafayette, Alcorn State, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern and host school McNeese.

"In the first meet in the outdoor season, you are focused more on your events that don't compete in indoor," jumps and multis coach Lon Badeaux said. "Those athletes haven't done a whole lot indoor, but they've been training and they are ready to go. This meet is just to get the juices flowing for outdoor."

After missing the entire 2023 outdoor season, Hayden Barrios competes in his first outdoor meet since 2022. In the SLC Indoor Championships, Barrios collected the silver medal in the pole vault.

In the 2022 outdoor championships, he won the gold medal in the pole vault.

Up until this season, Barrios had nearly strictly participated in the pole vault, but is competing in the long jump and shot put Saturday.

Several athletes are also either making their debuts for NSU or competing for the first time in 2024 after not competing in the indoor season.

Senior Ashley Duffus is back for her final season in Natchitoches. In her previous competition, she found the podium in the javelin in the 2023 SLC Outdoor Championships.

In the complete outdoor season last season, Duffus finished in the top three in the javelin in five of the six meets she competed in.

In the shot put, Carnitra Mackey is coming off a gold medal in the SLC Indoor Championships, throwing a personal-best 47-8. She will be joined in the event by Raven-Symone Jarrett, Abria Paul and Shakera Williams.

Jarrett had a tremendous debut for the NSU women in the SLC Indoor Championships, earning a silver in the pentathlon and is excited to start the outdoor season to try to win the gold.

"In this meet, I am going to focus on the shot put and javelin," Jarrett said. "I am just going to get in the rhythm for shot put and hopefully throw 10 and maybe get up to 12. In the javelin, I am just going to go out there and have fun and do what I know how to do."

In last year's meet at the Cowboy Relays, Djimon Gumbs etched his name in the NSU record books. He tossed a 205-11 in the discus, which set a personal record, Southland Conference record and British Virgin Islands record. Also in the meet, Gumbs posted a 63-1.5 at McNeese in the shot put, which was a season best and among the conference's best in its history.

Tim Pelkmans, one of the Demons participating in the shot put, is coming off a silver medal in the heptathlon at the SLC Indoor Championships.

The freshman is ready to make his presence felt in the outdoor season as well.

"I am really excited to kick off my first outdoor season," Pelkmans said. "The trainings have been really good, so I am just hoping to set personal records and win the gold in the decathlon in the outdoors at the conference championship to earn more points for the team."

Also participating in the shot put, the 6-foot-9 Seth Smith will make his Demons debut, among five Demons in the event.

While it is great to see athletes who may not have competed in the indoor season, Badeaux doesn't have any specific goals in mind, but he is prepared for someone to do something special.

"We don't have any goals for this first meet," Badeaux said. "What we will focus on is being in the top 48 to make the regional meet. I guarantee someone is going to do something great at this meet to get them to that meet in Kentucky this year."

Following the meet, the Demons and Lady Demons are back in action March 15 when they stay in-state once again when they travel to Lafayette for the Louisiana Classics.