CLINTON, Miss.—Five athletes earned personal bests in a strong day at the Watson Collegiate Cross Country Classic, wrapping up the regular season of meets prior to the Southland Conference Championships.

Lalaina Wood, Andrew Kent, Owen Rue, Mason Bayne and Selton Sanders all clocked personal bests, with Wood leading the way for the women and John Klein for the men.

"I would say today went really well," head coach Payten Vidourek said. "It was definitely a good measuring stick going into conference, for sure, especially going out there and beating Southeastern, as well as Louisiana Tech, even though they're not in our conference. It's always good to see some other Division I competition. But yeah, I was really proud of them."

Wood continued a strong season with a personal best in the 6K, running a 24:28.4 to finish 45^th at the meet.

She shaved more than three minutes off her time the last time at Mississippi College when she ran a 27:44.7 as a freshman in 2023.

"Lalaina's PR in the 6K definitely was something to showcase what she's got, and to prove herself for the conference meet," Vidourek said.

The freshmen and sophomores on the men's side took a step forward during the race, as freshman Andrew Kent and sophomore Owen Rue also placed inside the top 100 out of a group of 214 finishers.

"The guys showed that the last couple weeks have really paid off," Vidourek said. They were able to rest and just dive into training. Almost everybody but John was able to PR, which was really great compared to the 8K they ran at UT Tyler.

"There are just a lot of kinks that we're figuring out and fixing and especially going into the next couple weeks just really resting up. I'm really confident in how the boys are going to race and they're going to definitely go there and beat a few teams from conference and that's really what we're looking for."

Kent continued a strong opening campaign at NSU with a time of 27:29.80 in the 8K race, placing 78^th, while Rue placed third among the Demon runners and 89^th overall with a time of 27:54.60, both of which are personal bests.

Rue finished not too far behind with a time of 27:54.60, cutting his 8K time by nearly a half minute, set at last year's Mississippi College meet.

Bayne shaved nearly a minute off his previous best, clocking a 28:33.9 to finish 113^th on Friday after running a 29:15.2 at last year's Watson Collegiate Cross Country Classic.

Kaden Elliott (29:00.10) finished 127^th and Selton Sanders (30:37.90) came in 165^th to round out the Demon runners, with the latter setting a personal best.

Sanders showed his improvement by cutting nearly a minute off his previous 8K best of 31:58.1, set at the UT Tyler XC Opener.

Next up for the teams is the conference championships, which takes place at the home course in Natchitoches on Oct. 31.