FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas—While the track on the campus of Texas Tech has been kind to the Northwestern State track and field teams, they head elsewhere for the first time this season.

After two successful meets in Lubbock, much of the teams head to a different SEC school for this one, traveling to the University of Arkansas for the Tyson Invitational, a two-day meet which begins Friday.

Friday's events tentatively begin at 1:45 with the men's pole vault with the running events starting at the 2:30 with the 60-meter dash qualifying round.

The events Saturday start at 10:30 a.m. with the women's pole vault with the running events starting at noon with the men's 800-meter run.

While most are headed to Arkansas, some are headed to the campus of Pittsburg State for the Russ Jewett Indoor Gorilla Classic.

The throwers kick off the meet at 2 p.m. on Friday and pick it up again at noon Saturday.

"I'm really looking forward to our athletes getting to compete against some of the best in the country," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "These are two very quality meets. Arkansas is one of the best facilities and teams in the country and this meet has historically been one of the best, so it will be fun to compete there."

Northwestern State's relay teams have been on a roll to begin the indoor season with both breaking program records in the 4x400 indoor relay and the women breaking the record in both meets this season.

Even though the men didn't break the school record in the season opener, they came close, clocking the second best time in program history.

To open the season for the women, the quartet of Maygan Shaw, Tranasia Jones, Margaret Conteh and Samari Finney clocked a 3:40.74 to place eighth out of 28 teams and break the conference record.

If that wasn't enough, the foursome of Shaw, Conteh, Jones and Kahliyah Anderson did one better, smashing their own record, running a 3:36.76 at the Stan Scott Invite & Multis to finish the meet.

Shaw won SLC Female Athlete of the Week following the first meet of the season and nearly won it again in her second meet.

She is off to a fast start this season. In addition to being a member of the 4x400 record relay team, she also leads the conference in both the 200 (23.60) and 400 (53.05).

In addition to her three SLC-leading times, Northwestern State has the top mark in five events, including the men's relay.

Madison Brown (women's pole vault), Samari Finney (women's long jump), Randy Kelly (men's high jump) and Galen Loyd (men's 400) also hold the top spot in their events in the SLC.

In that last meet, the men's group of Kason Jones, Vincente Graiani, William Achee and Galen Loyd  broke the school record as well, running a 3:10.87, surpassing the previous record by nearly two seconds.

Following the trip to Arkansas and Pittsburg State, Northwestern State is back in action Feb. 21, as the teams travel Baton Rouge for the LSU Twilight, the final meet for the teams prior to the Southland Conference Indoor Championships beginning March 2.