Competing in their only home meet of the season, the Northwestern State track and field teams combined to win 19 events at the Leon Johnson NSU Invitational on Saturday at the Walter P. Ledet Track and Field Complex.
It started with Eliska Zahradnickova winning the women’s discus and finished with a victory by Elijah Rowe in the men’s 200-meter dash.
In between, NSU recorded wins by Tarajh Hudson (men’s discus), Samari Finney (women’s long jump), Roy Morris (men’s long jump), Randy Kelly (men’s high jump), Margaret Mannering (women’s hammer), Teodora Samac (women’s javelin), Shakera Williams (women’s shot put), Marquis Butler (men’s triple jump), both the men’s and women’s 4×100 relays, Rushana Dwyer (women’s 200 and 400), Will Achee (men’s 400), Juvonna Cornette (women’s 100), Keontae Gaines (men’s100), Lalaina Wood (women’s 1500) and Clinton Laguerre (men’s 400 hurdles).
The 17 individual events were won by 16 different athletes, as only Dwyer won more than one event.
“I think we had a good day on the track and in the field,” head coach Mike Heimerman said. “Overall, I am very happy. The throwers really shined today, and we were probably good in every event.”
Zahradnickova began the strong day with her big personal best in the discus, tossing 172-6, which not only won the event, but is also the top mark in the Southland Conference.
Zahradnickova, one of the 33 seniors honored during the meet, started a monster day from the throwers.
That continued with Hudson in the men’s discus. Hudson threw a season-best 181-1, which moved him into the top 10 for the NCAA East qualifying and gave him the top mark in the conference.
“That definitely felt good,” Hudson said. “That was my furthest mark in a couple years, so that feels good and it feels good to be on top of the conference. I hope I can keep building on this because and keep getting better because it is a very competitive conference.”
If Hudson wasn’t leading the league in the event, his teammate would be.
Seth Smith had his best career throw, tossing a personal-best 176-2 to place second in the event and second in the Southland.
In the women’s shot put, Shakera Williams tossed a personal-best 47-8 to win the event, while Zahradnickova finished second with a throw of 46-5.75.
In the men’s javelin, Demons legend Cody Fillinich came back and threw in a meet for the first time in 17 years and it is like he never left. The 2025 N-Club Hall of Fame inductee tossed a 217-0 to win the event by a wide margin.
As good as the throws were, the jumps weren’t too shabby either, led by a personal best from Kelly.
In the 2025 Leon Johnson NSU Invitational, he recorded a personal best by clearing 7-0.5, the first time he cleared seven feet. Saturday he was at it again, clearing 7-0.75, a new personal best for the South Carolina native.
“It feels great,” Kelly said. “Last year at this meet, I jumped 2.14 and now this year, I jumped 2.15 meters, so it was great to be able to add onto my personal best. I am just blessed to be able to go out and do it again as a senior.”
Kelly also had a nice day in the men’s long jump, recording a jump of 23-7, only behind teammate, Morris, who recorded a jump of 24-8.5 for his second long jump win in the Leon Johnson NSU Invitational in as many seasons.
While Morris is the king of the men’s long jump team, Finney is the queen on the women’s side, winning with a leap of 19-11.
On the track, the women’s (46.48) and men’s (39.61) ‘A’ teams won the 4×100 relays.
Next up is a trip to Gainesville for the Pepsi Florida Relays, a two-day event starting Friday.
TENNIS: In a match that carried the intensity of a rivalry battle, Northwestern turned early adversity into momentum, sweeping Stephen F. Austin 7–0 on Saturday at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex.
With emotions running high on both sides, the Lady Demons (10-5 overall, 6-1 in the SLC) leaned on resilience and execution to secure the doubles point and carry that energy through singles play. The No. 1 doubles pairing of v Honoka Umeda and Sofi Garcia faced an early 3–0 deficit but rallied to force a tiebreak and dominated it 7–0 to secure a 7–6 victory and the doubles point.
Head coach Marcos Morelli emphasized the importance of that early momentum after a tight doubles showing the previous weekend.
“We worked on playing on our terms from start to finish, playing aggressive Demon doubles,” Morelli said. “Every doubles point is close. Last weekend we had match points, this weekend it gets decided in a tiebreak. So it was a major talking point for us.”
Umeda quickly extended the lead with a 6–2, 6–2 win over Rooth at No. 1 before Sofi Garcia delivered one of the most impressive comebacks of the match at No. 5.
After taking the opening set, Garcia found herself trailing 5–1 in the second before storming back to claim a 6–1, 7–5 win.
“That’s something we’ve been talking about,” Morelli said. “The girls realized that when adversity comes, you have to fight. If you don’t fight, it’s not going to go your way. They knew they would face adversity in this match, and they were ready to respond the right way.”
Maria Farina clinched the team victory at No. 2 singles, bouncing back from a first-set loss to defeat Ksenia Mamontova 0–6, 6–4, 2–0 before a retirement gave Northwestern a 4–0 lead.
Even after the match was decided, the Lady Demons continued to battle through tight moments.
“The fight has been there in other matches,” Morelli said. “But this time, the girls showed full commitment to their process for almost the entire match. That was the difference.
“This group wants to accomplish big things,” he said. “They know SFA is a tough team, and they understand they have to perform at a high level to reach those goals.”
Northwestern plays a non-conference match Wednesday at UL-Lafayette, then wraps up the regular season at home next weekend with matches Saturday and next Monday.
