GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Neither mother nature or the other competitors could stop the Northwestern State men's 4x400 relay team.

After a two-hour weather delay, the Demons showed their mental toughness by capping off the day on Friday with their finest race in the history of the program.

The quartet of Desmond Duncan, Charlie Bartholomew, Kason Jones and Will Achee ran a blistering 3:04.67 to not only win the event but set a school record and rank No. 2 nationally as well, only behind LSU's 3:04.61.

It blasted the previous best mark of 3:06.06, set last season.

That school record highlighted a strong first day for NSU at the Florida Relays on the campus of the University of Florida.

"Overall, it was a great day started off by the female hammer throwers," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "It was a PR for Ana and that was right underneath Margaret's PR against really some pretty stiff competition so I was very proud of those two.

"The 4x400 relays both ran very well. It was a men's school record and No. 2 in the NCAA for right now. It was a super impressive anchor leg by Will, but everybody ran very well in that men's relay."

The women's 4x400 relay didn't do too shabby, either, finishing third in the meet with a time of 3:34.04, far and away the best mark in the Southland this season and top 10 nationally.
Individually, four athletes posted personal bests and five reached the finals.

Roy Morris had a huge day in the men's long jump, winning it with a personal-best 25-2, the first time jumping 25-0 in his career, coming through on his final attempt.

"Roy coming back to jump a PR on his last jump was impressive and that was a swirling wind too," Heimerman said. "There were a lot of times there were headwinds, so you know it wasn't fun, so those guys did very well on that and that was after a two-hour weather delay."

It led a 1-2 finish for the Demons, as he was followed by Elijah Rowe's 24-5.5.

In addition to Morris, Ana Manousaridis (women's hammer), Silet Gray (women's 400-meter hurdles) and Brian Fisher (men's 400-meter hurdles) all had personal bests, while Samari Finney earned a trip to finals in the women's long jump invite, as well as the women's javelin throwers, Teodora Samac and Anish Gibbons.

Starting the day, Manousaridis tossed a 169-4 in the women's hammer to place 19^th. Later, Gray (1:01.08) finished 33^rd in the women's 400 hurdles and Fisher (55.99) beat his previous best by more than three seconds, which was set when he was at Wiley.

While she didn't set a new personal best, Margaret Mannering nearly did so, as the freshman finished 15^th in the women's hammer with a throw of 180-11, less than a foot off a personal best.

Clinton Laguerre (53.31) ran a season best in the men's 400-meter hurdles to finish 31^st in the event.

Competing against some of the best jumpers in the nation, Finney placed eighth in the women's long jump invite with a jump of 19-0.5.

Both women's javelin throwers also made the finals, as Samac (156-0) and Gibbons (147-11) placed eighth and ninth, respectively.

To begin the track events, the women's 4x100 relay ran a 45.13, which would be the best time in the Southland Conference this season if NSU didn't already have the top mark.
That time earned the Lady Demons a 17^th place finish in the relay.

Keontae Gaines, the reigning SLC Men's Track Athlete of the Week, ran a 21.06 in the men's 200-meter dash to finish 17^th, while Juvonna Cornette (24.21) placed 30^th out of 50 competitors in the women's 200.

"We ran really good for the winds," Heimerman said. "I know Keonte's wind reading comes up 0.0 but that was blowing in our face like crazy, so I don't know how that happened. Most of the time they ran into a huge headwind, which is not fun, so you know that they all ran very well."

It was part of a strong first day for NSU, showing it can compete with some of the best in the nation.

"I am proud on how everybody competed during day one down here in Gainesville," Heimerman said. "We have a lot of events tomorrow so it should be a fun day. But today was just a phenomenal day by everybody that competed and it was topped off with a big school record by the men's 4x4."

The teams wrap up their trip to Florida on Saturday, starting at 8 a.m. with the men's discus and NSU wraps up its part of the meet with the men's 100-meter dash, which starts at 3:45 p.m.