LEXINGTON, Kent.—A group of a dozen Northwestern State women's athletes are making the trip to the NCAA East First Round, led by a group of four athletes who won gold medals at the Southland Conference meet.

"There are a lot going to regionals," head coach Mike Heimerman said. "I think the only time we had more was when it was a four-regional format because just about the entire team qualified. In the new two-regional qualifying, this has to be the most women and men we've had qualify."

Rushana Dwyer and Juvonna Cornette, each coming off a gold medal at the conference meet, lead a group of five NSU women's sprinters. They are joined going to Kentucky by Margaret Conteh, Kahliyah Anderson and Layden Jack.

Samari Finney heads to regionals for the third time in as many seasons with the Lady Demons after earning a gold medal at the conference meet in the long jump.

Six throwers are also traveling to regionals, led by Anisha Gibbons, fresh off her gold medal at the conference championships in the javelin.

Gibbons is joined at regionals by Teodora Samac, Eliska Zahradnickova, Shakera Kirk, Ryah Dates and freshman Shantangelo Williams.

The women begin Thursday with the finals of the track events, as well as some field events taking place on the women's second day on Saturday, the final day of regionals.

The javelin kicks off regionals for the Lady Demons, as both Gibbons and Samac take part in the event at noon Thursday.

Cornette and the 100-meter dash leads off for the Lady Demons in the running events Thursday at 5 p.m.

"I had never competed at the Division I level before this year and to win conference and qualify for regionals this year is a huge deal, and I am proud of myself," Cornette said. I am so excited and I can't wait to see what I do at regionals."

The discus kicks off the events on Saturday at noon.

All four days can be viewed on ESPN+.

Gibbons tossed a 166-9 on her fifth throw at the Southland Conference Championships and kicks off her first regionals appearance for NSU at noon Thursday.

Samac, who is making her second regional appearance in as many seasons, recorded a throw of 162-0, which she tossed at the Alumni Muster.

Next up on day one for the women is the long jump with Samari Finney, who posted a jump of 20-4.25 at the SLC meet, which not only won her the gold at the conference meet, but also punched her a ticket to regionals.

She competes at 5 p.m.

At 5:30 on Thursday is the shot put, as Dates punched her ticket to regionals at the conference meet with a bronze medal-toss of 50-11.

To finish off the events on Thursday's first day, Dwyer and Conteh compete in the 400-meter dash at 6:25 p.m.

Both runners clocked their season bests at the conference meet this past weekend, as Dwyer earned the gold with a time of 51.20, just .01 shy of the program record, set last season by Maygan Shaw.

Conteh grabbed the bronze, running a 51.92, finishing just outside the top 20 in the NCAA East qualifying list.

The top 24 in the sprints events advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday, and from there, the top 12 advance to Eugene, Oregon, and nationals.


At noon on Saturday is the event with the most athletes involved—the shot put. Zahradnickova, Kirk and freshman Williams all are taking part.

"We've seen this all along from Shantangelo," Heimerman said. "She's a super talented athlete. She's got some freakish tendencies, which is a good thing. Shantangelo has a super quick twitch, which is both good and bad. It's good to have a quick twitch, but it's bad if you don't know how to handle it.

"Right now, we're learning how to handle being so fast. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. To throw what she did at conference was awesome since it was about a seven-foot improvement."

Zahradnickova leads the discus throwers, as she tossed a 172-10 at the Bryan Clay Invitational to earn the spot at regionals.

Kirk posted her toss of 170-5 to punch her ticket to regionals at the Alumni Muster earlier this month and Williams made her way in with a major personal-best 167-8 at the Southland meet to claim the bronze.

After the discus, next up for the Lady Demons is the quarterfinals of the sprints events, as they compete in the open events and aim to go to nationals at the University of Oregon.

To round out NSU's time in Kentucky is the women's 4x400 relay, as Dwyer and Conteh are joined on the relay team with Anderson and Finney, as well as Jack as the alternate.

Their best time this season so far was at the LSU Alumni Gold, running a 3:32.23.