NATCHITOCHES—Northwestern State enjoyed hosting meets so much last year, it decided to host another one this season.

After hosting both a pre-Southland meet and the actual conference championships a season ago, NSU is hosting the NSU Demon Invitational on Friday.

The women start at 5:45 p.m. while the men begin at 6:15 p.m. on the NSU campus, starting behind the soccer field.

It will not be streamed, but fans can follow the results via a link found on NSUDemons.com if they cannot attend the meet in person.

It is a small meet, as Louisiana Tech and Centenary are the other schools joining NSU at the meet.

After having a pair of meets, including the conference meet last season, the teams were eager to host another one and compete in front of the home crowd.

"We really enjoyed having the two meets at home last year with the conference championships and pre-conference meet," head coach Alex Wills said. "We got to see friends and family come out and watch the kids race, so that is something I wanted to continue this year as well to show the community and university all the work they've been putting in."

The young teams began their season this past week at McNeese.

After being second to only John Klein last season, Andrew Kent had a strong open to his sophomore season with a time of 16:25.00 to place 29th, leading a group of Demons that all posted personal bests at McNeese.

"I feel like I am getting more confident every meet," Kent said. "Every race gives me more experience, especially collegiate experience, and it helps me be more confident in my abilities."

Selton Sanders clocked a 20:15.1 at last year's McNeese Season Opener, but he was determined to shatter that mark in his first meet as a sophomore, clocking an 18:09.9 in the 5K to shave more than two seconds off his time from just one season ago.

Freshman Jack Pattillo finished right behind Kent among the Demons, as he placed 36th overall and second on the Demons with a time of 17:15.57, posting a strong start in his first collegiate meet.

On the women's side, Abby Poche led the way for the Lady Demons, clocking a time of 11:27.7 in the 3K to finish 24^th.

"I would say my first race went pretty well," Poche said. "It's been since May that I have raced, so I was just trying to get back into it. Overall, I think it went pretty well."

Poche led a group of seven Lady Demon freshmen, as she was followed closely behind by Shelby Burgin, who clocked a time of 11:57.90 to finish 26th, leading a string of four in a row for the Lady Demons. Andie Claire Woodhead (11:59.65) placed 27th, Nala Mitchel finished in 28th (12:06.53) and Mac Tingle (12:09.17) came in 29th.

All the women's runners ran within 45 seconds of each other, which Wills is excited about because it helps the members of the team push each other.

He also established a new way of bringing out the athletes' competitiveness.

"We have a new thing we're going to do every meet with making people the PR king and queen of the meet," Wills said. "We just go back and evaluate how everybody was doing. In the first meet, Selton PR'd by more than a minute and a half and on the girls side, we evaluated how they ran in high school cross country.

"We had two girls run a 30-second PR and for Shelby, who is primarily an 800-meter runner, and for her to come out and be out No. 2 runner, I am really happy how she is progressing as well."

Next up is a week off before a trip back to Lake Charles for the Cowboy Stampede for the third of four pre-Southland Conference Championships meets as they gear up for the conference meet back in Lake Charles on Oct. 30.