Men's results

Women's results

HOUSTON – Northwestern State's top runners were freshmen, Jacqueline Rushford for the Lady Demons and Josh Wilkins for the Demons, Friday evening in the first team competition of the fall cross country season for NSU, the 39^th Annual Rice Invitational.
 
Rushford led the Lady Demons to ninth in a 14-team field, with a gap time (the duration between the first scoring time and the fifth and final scoring mark) approaching the one-minute goal coach Nathaniel McReynolds set for both NSU teams. She covered the 4,000-meter course at the Rice Intramural Fields in 15:12, just a couple of places and three seconds better than fellow freshman teammate Erin Wrozek (15:15).
 
Completing the score card for the Lady Demons:  freshman Ashley Adams in 15:48, freshman Emily Sitarz in 16:10 and sophomore Annie Fillers (16:43). The NSU women had a gap time of 1:31.
 
Wilkins ran 6,000 meters in 18:41 while another freshman, Guy Butts, was the second scoring Demon in 19:02. The Demons ran 13^th in the 14-team standings.
 
Contributing to the NSU men's score were junior Jeremy Elliot (19:47), freshman Hunter Warmack (20:09) and sophomore Lucas Moncla (20:11). Also competing were sophomore Skylor Reese (20:18), sophomore Miles Brown (22:02) and freshman Tyler Corwin (22:14).
 
The Demons' gap time was 1:30 between first and fifth.
 
Five regionally-ranked teams ran in the men's race, with McNeese pulling the upset and winning with 51 points, topping Rice, Houston, Texas State and LSU in the top five.
 
In the women's competition, Rice was the runaway winner with a score of 27 as five runners finished in the top 12.
 
Northwestern runs again next Saturday morning at Louisiana Tech. The NSU squads opened the season two weeks earlier at McNeese in a relay competition.