LAKE CHARLES—Another meet, another day in which Abby Poche and Andrew Kent led the way for Northwestern State.

Poche and Kent finished 22^nd and 33^rd, respectively, in their races at the Cowboy Stampede on Saturday morning at the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex.

"I am extremely proud of the kids today," head coach Alex Wills said. "Abby Poche started things off running 18:43 for 5K when her PR for the 3-mile was only 20:14 was huge. I saw lots of improvements today in both returns like Kaden Elliott and then Owen Rowe starting to come back healthy.

"Then the freshmen like Andie Woodhead and Jack Pattillo are showing that they are putting in the work training and it's paying off. I'm really excited to see what these next two weeks of training will be able to do for this group.

Running a longer distance than they're used to, Poche led the group of Lady Demons in the 5K, clocking an 18:43.60 to place 22^nd out of 41 women's runners at the meet.

Andie Claire Woodhead was the next Lady Demon to cross the finish line, running a time of 20:19.15 to finish in 32^nd place and she was followed immediately by Shelby Burgin, who posted a time of 20:34.23 to come in 33^rd.

Peyton Pirie (21:30.63) checked in placing 36^th and Crystal Godfrey (22:23.99) finished 39^th.

On the men's side, Kent took home the Demons win, placing 33^rd out of 48 with a time of 21:38.11, just five seconds shy of a personal best.

He was followed closely behind by Kaden Elliott in 35^th place, running a 21:58.19, followed closely by freshman Jack Pattillo, who ran a 21:59.99.

Fellow freshman Kurt Kampert ran a 22:35.41 to finish 39^th and he was followed among the Demons by Owen Rue (22:44.77) in 41^st, Mason Bayne (23:05.59) in 42^nd and Selton Sanders (23:21.99) in 44^th.

Next up for is NSU Watson Cross Country Classic at Mississippi College on Oct. 16, the final tune-up prior to the conference meet, which takes place Oct. 30 back on the campus of McNeese.