NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- Mike Green, Andrea Warren, Chris Pearson, Corey Jones and the women's 4x100 meter relay team performed better than ever Sunday evening but couldn't win their events for Northwestern State on the final day of the 2009 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The Lady Demons' 4x100 meter relay team of Amanda Freeman, Jazmen Williams, Jessica Tuck and Anna Forest qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regionals later this month with a 45.53 time that was third-best in school history, but the foursome settled for second place at the conference meet.
Green shaved time off his 400 meter best, posting a 46.13, 0.08 faster than his previous best that ranked 15th nationally. It didn't improve his national staus and it was good enough only for third Sunday, as the race featured three of the top 15 times in the country this spring. Sam Houston State runners Darryl Hayes (45.93, the nation's ninth-fastest time) and Michael Courtney (46.04, 10th nationally) edged ahead of Green in the final 100 meters and held him off in a tight battle for the SLC gold medal.
Warren registered her personal best 800 meter time, 2:12.44, and gave the Lady Demons their best finish Sunday with a runner-up showing to Devyn Mitchell (2:12.12), just as the runners were seeded based on their season's performances. Warren carved nearly a second off her previous best and became the third-fastest 800 meter runner in Lady Demon history, just over a second back of the school record.
Pearson ran his career best 800, 1:51.70, nearly a two-second improvement, and finished fifth, just 0.34 out of second in a pack of runners.
Northwestern picked up two scoring performances in the men's discus. Jones threw a foot farther than ever with his fourth-place 172-5 mark while freshman Buck Thompson was sixth in 162-6, with the duo combining to score eight points.
The Demons' 4x400 meter relay team of Michael Batts, Jamie Emery, Jeremy Thomas and Green overcame an obstruction at the first exchange hampering at least three teams, and still threatened its season-best time. NSU clocked a third-place 3:08.44, just 0.23 behind their winning mark at the Texas Relays that ranks 36th nationally.
Without any event victories Sunday, both Northwestern teams finished seventh in the 11-team league standings (Central Arkansas is not yet eligible to score at the conference meet due to its transition into Division I status). The Stephen F. Austin women and Southeastern Louisiana men, coached by former NSU competitor Sean Brady, won the team titles.
Top-seeded 110 meter hurdler Michael Hill led most of the race but was overtaken over the final two hurdles and setteld for third in 14.28, well be'hind his season's best of 13.95 and trailing his qualifying perfomance Saturday evening of 14.17. Damian Manning of SLU won in 14.13 with Sam Houston State's John Thomas second in 14.24.
Hill, seeded 12th entering the meet in the 400 meter hurdles, posted the sixth-fastest qualifying time Saturday to reac.h the finals and gave NSU a point with an eighth-place finish.
Forest ran a season-best 24.39 and took fifth in the 200. She was sixth in the 100 in 11.93 and ran a leg on the fourth-place 4x400 relay team that ran a season-best 3:44.72 (Williams, Phyllis Iheanacho, Carmen Wallace and Andrea Warren).
The Demons' 4x100 relay team ran a 41.35 for sixth place. Demons' hurdler P.J. Bennett took seventh in the 110 meter hurdles, with his 15.18 time hampered late in the race when the runner next to him fell into his lane over the next-to-last hurdle. Batts was seventh in the 400 in 47.79.
Freshman Leslie Jordan snagged a point with an eighth-place 132-7 throw, a season best, in the women's discus.
Lady Demon newcomer Wallace ran a strong race in the 400 meter hurdles final, but didn't clear the final hurdle after she was coming down the stretch solidly in third place. She did not finish.
Meet host Stephen F. Austin ran away with the women's title, scoring 173 1/2 points. Texas State was second with 135 1/2 followed by Texas-Arlington at 125, Sam Houston (99) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (95). McNeese State was sixth, edging NSU 44-43, with Southeastern Louisiana eighth at 37, followed by Texas-San Antonio (31), Nicholls (23) and Lamar (12).
In the men's team standings, Southeastern won the 4x400 meter relay and the overall championship 140-139 1/2 over Texas-Arlington. Sam Houston was third (118), UTSA fourth (99 1/2), SFA fifth (98 1/2), Texas State sixth (73), followed by Northwestern (63 1/2), Lamar (33), TAMCC (30) and McNeese (23).