NATCHITOCHES—It is a day that ends in 'y,' so John Klein posted another terrific day for Northwestern State to lead the way at the UT-Tyler Cross Country Opener on Saturday morning.

For the second consecutive meet, Klein highlighted the race for the Demons, as he clocked a 25:58.75 in the 8K to finish second out of 125 finishers and first out of the six Demons runners.

"Considering this is just a group with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores and some runners have never run this distance and some guys have only ran it once or twice and it was over a year ago, it was really good for those guys," head coach Payten Vidourek said. "The course was rolling hills, really muddy on the back side, so we really weren't expecting any fast times whatsoever. They competed really well, and they executed the plan almost perfectly."

It is not surprising about the fifth-year veteran Klein highlighting the Demon runners, as the Demons feature several freshmen and sophomores who are not used to the 8K distance and are preparing themselves for the Southland Conference meet late next month.

"John executed our plan exactly how we discussed the day before and today and it went exactly how we wanted," Vidourek said. "At around the 2-mile mark, he was in around seventh-to-10th place. and whenever we saw him in the last mile, he jumped up the third or fourth and then ended up getting second.

"It was really great race, just a smart race, especially coming from an older guy. That's definitely something we wanted to see and just lead that onto the other guys."

Coming in second among the NSU men was once again freshman Andrew Kent, who finished in 44^th place, running a 28:39.64.

Owen Rue came in 58^th place and third among the Demons runners, as the sophomore clocked a 29:40.12, finishing shortly ahead of Kaden Elliott, who finished in 65^th place.

Elliott, another sophomore, clocked a 29:66.61 to finish fourth among Demon runners.

Coming in next among NSU runners was Mason Bayne, who ran a 30:20.02 to finish 71^st and freshman Selton Sanders came in behind Bayne, placing 94^th with a time of 31:58.10.

After missing last meet, Lalaina Wood made her presence felt in this one, leading the Lady Demons, finishing 28^th out of 88 with a 28:52.90 in the 5K, leading a group of six runners for NSU.

"For the women, Lalaina had a good race in her first time running a 5K in two years," Vidourek said. "Just like with the guys, the course is really rough. But at the same time with both the men and women, it was nice. It was a bigger race we're talking about 110 people in the men and around 90 and the women so our ladies and the men had plenty of people to race with. Overall, I am very proud of the team and looking forward to next week at the home meet."

Gracie Evers clocked a 26:18.93 to finish 73^rd and come in second among Lady Demons, finishing just ahead of Thea Ring (26:56.74), who finished 75^th.

Cherie Neal (28:46.82) finished 81^st, Mikayla Mondello (31:32.52) placed 87^th and Teodora Samac (31:32.73) placed 88^th.

Next up for the Demons and Lady Demons is the lone home regular season meet, the NSU Pre-SLC meet Friday in Natchitoches. They will also host the SLC Championships on Oct. 31.