LAKE CHARLES—The young group of cross country runners showed out for Northwestern State, highlighting its showing at the Southland Conference Championships on Friday at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex on the campus of McNeese.

Eleven athletes posted personal bests and one more was competing in her first race in the event, which gives the team confidence as they move into the track season and into future cross country seasons.

"Unfortunately, the team scores didn't really show how well the kids performed," head coach Alex Wills said. "I think we had about a dozen PRs today and I was very proud of all of them. It's such a young team too. I have no doubt if you give them time to continue to develop and this will be a very competitive team in the conference."

On the women's side, six runners ran personal bests in the 6K race, and the only one who didn't—Mac Tingle—was making her first showing at that distance after not competing at Mississippi Christian earlier this month.

Abby Poche once again led a young group of Lady Demons, just like she has all season. She clocked a 23:18.08, beating her previous best in the 6K by nearly a half minute, as she finished in 59^th place out of 93 runners.

For the third time this season, Shelby Burgin has come in second for the NSU women, running a 24:35.59 to finish 75^th.  She beat her previous time by nearly a minute, as she posted a time of 25:28.0 in the 6K at Mississippi Christian.

In her first career 6K, Tingle ran a 25:10.96 to place 81^st overall and third among Lady Demons. Right behind her was teammate Andie Claire Woodhead (26:12.78) to finish 82^nd, beating her time from Mississippi by more than a minute, where she ran a 27:20.1.

Nala Mitchel (26:06.97), Peyton Pirie (26:33.05) and Crystal Godfrey (28:45.75) all posted personal bests as well, finishing 87^th, 89^th and 90^th, respectively.

Godfrey shaved her personal best time by 36 seconds.

As a team, the women finished 11^th.

Like usual, Andrew Kent was the leader on the Demons. Before the race, he said he wanted to run a sub-27:00.00 in the 8K, and he did just that, running a personal-best 26:44.73 to finish in 60^th place.

Freshman Tyler Newland followed up a strong meet at the Watson Classic by running a personal best 27:07.30 to finish in 65^th place and second among Demons.

Jack Pattillo, another freshman, had another strong showing with a time of a personal-best 27:45.59 to place 78^th.

Kaden Elliott ran a 28:02.00 to finish 82^nd and fourth among the Demons.

Kurt Kampert (28:26.63) placed 86^th with a personal best and Owen Rue (28:35.89) finished one spot behind him in 87^th.

Mason Bayne (29:05.28) placed in 90^th and Selton Sanders finished in 92^nd with a personal best time of 29:31.50.

The NSU placed 12^th in the conference standings.

Next up for NSU, the teams turn their attention to the track and field season, which begins in January.