BATON ROUGE—While no school records were broken, several Northwestern State athletes collected personal bests at the LSU Twilight on Friday at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse in its final meet prior to the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.

"It was a pretty solid day," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "I think most were excited just to be inside and not freezing to death outside like we were this whole week. The throwers had a good day and I am happy with their progress. They are looking good and are headed in the right direction for conference.

"Elijah (Rowe) and Roy (Morris) had great days in the long jump. Peyten (Ware) and Brian Lay in the pole vault. Overall, it was a good day and it was definitely nice not to freeze to death during the competition like we were at practice."

It did not take long for the first personal best to be set, as Bernesha Knowles not only set a personal best, but won the women's weight throw with a toss of 56-7.25. Tahisha Thompson placed fifth in the event with a toss of 46-7.25.

On the men's side, a pair tossed season bests, as Donovahn Watkins (54-11.25) and Tarajh Hudson (54-6.65) finished seventh and eighth, respectively. However, Abner Johnson led the way for the Demons, as he finished sixth with a throw of 55-7.

Justin Craft threw a personal best in the men's shot put, tossing a 54-9.25 to finish second out of 12 competitors. While it wasn't a personal best, Tarajh Hudson did toss a season best, recording a distance of 50-7.25.

Freshman Ryah Dates placed third in the women's shot put with a throw of 46-11.5. The other three Lady Demons in the event— Shakera Williams (46-9.5), Shanice Hutson (46-6.75) and Carnitra Mackey (44-9.5)—tossed season bests, finishing fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively.

On the track, Maygan Shaw (7.65) and Samari Finney (7,74) advanced to the finals in the women's 60-meter finals, the latter of whom ran a personal best.

In the finals, Shaw ran a 7.67 to place sixth and Finney placed eighth with a 7.80..

Also posting a personal best in the event were Silet Gray, who ran a 7.93 to place 16^th, and Jessica Pitcher, who ran a 7.96 to finish 20^th.

On the men's side in the 60-meter dash, Tavis Wilson (6.81) and Tajae Francis (6.83) advanced to the finals by placing fourth and seventh, respectively, in the semifinals.

In the finals, Francis (6.88) placed seventh and Wilson (6.91) finished in eighth.

Galen Loyd ran a 6.95 to tie a personal best and finish 11^th.

Silet Gray ran a 26.51 in the women's 200-meter dash to finish second of 11 runners with Cherie Neal placing third with a personal best time of 26.66.

Tim Pelkmans ran a season-best 8.48 in the men's 60-meter hurdles to finish 10^th out of 17.

In the jumps, Elijah Rowe and Roy Morris each posted personal bests in the men's long jump. Rowe jumped a distance of 24-7.75, which not only is a personal best, but also puts him in the top 60 nationally in the event. Morris, who posted a 24-1.5, placed fourth in the event.

On the women's side, Finney (19-0.6) finished in second, while Victoria Byrd (17-4.25) placed fourth and Briana Green (17-4) came in fifth. Neal (17-1.25) posted a season best to place seventh.

Raven-Symone Jarrett cleared 5-4.25 to finish first in the women's high jump, while Randy Kelly cleared 6-9.5 to finish third in the men's high jump.

A pair of season bests for the Lady Demons in the women's triple jump, highlighted by Jaslyn Smith's 37-11.25. Victoria Byrd's season-best 35-10.50 placed seventh.

In the pole vault, both Bryan Lay and Kareem Nazim cleared 15-0 on the men's side and Peyten Ware and Madison Brown each cleared 12-0 on the women's side, with Ware's being a personal best. She crushed her previous best of 11-4.

Back on the track, the distance runners had a nice day for the track teams.

A pair of personal bests were set in the mile, as Owen Rue (4:42.72) did it on the men's side and Leah Thompson (5:38.88) did so on the women's side.

Two more Demons set personal bests in the 3000-meter run. John Klein (8:42.50) and Korbin Shumate (8:51.81) placed fifth and ninth, respectively to knock off their previous bests.

In the men's 800-meter run, Mason Bayne clocked a 2:04.59 placed 17^th and set a personal best as well.

The teams head to Birmingham, Alabama, for the SLC Indoor Championships, with the two-day event starting March 2.