Outdoor track season dawns Saturday at McNeese

 LAKE CHARLES -- Sprinters Mike Green, Consuela Lindsy, Constance Seibles and Justin Walker, and school record-holding thrower DeJon Griffin, will help lead Northwestern State into the 2011 outdoor track and field season debut Saturday, the Cowboy Relays hosted by McNeese State.  

Lamar, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana and Southwest Christian will join the Cowboys and Demons, and the Cowgirls and Lady Demons, for the meet.  Field events will begin at 9 a.m. with running events slated to begin an hour later.  

Green, who had exhausted his indoor eligibility, returns to competition for his senior season as the reigning Southland Conference 400 meter champion and the anchor of the 2010 Southland 4x400 relay winners. The Demons will be missing a key relay cog Saturday as Kendal Taylor will miss the meet with a slight hamstring injury.  

Seibles is the Lady Demon school record-holder in the 200 and is a strong 400 meter and relay runner. Lindsy, a freshman, was second in the 400 at the recent SLC Indoor championships and will make her collegiate debut Saturday in her specialty, the 400 meter hurdles.  

Griffin owns the school record in the hammer throw and is a strong discus competitor as well. She, like Green, had exhausted her indoor eligibility so will be making her 2011 competitive debut.  

Walker won the SLC 200 meter title outdoors as a freshman last year, breaking a 29-year-old school record by All-American Joe Delaney with a 20.49 clocking. Walker had top 10 nationally-ranked times last spring in the 100 and 200.  

Lady Demon senior Andrea Warren, one of the top 800 meter runners in the SLC, is among the other strong entries for Northwestern.

   Along with Taylor, Lady Demon All-America thrower Trecey Rew will not compete Saturday, nor will Demons' high jumper Josh Commiato, second as a freshman at the SLC Outdoors last spring. Rew is in a training cycle and may not compete outdoors for another meet or two, while Commiato has an injured plant foot and is on the shelf for now.  

The event will also mark the awarding of the third annual Bob Hayes challenge trophy, which goes to the school that accounts for the most points (men and women) in the meet.  McNeese State has won the first two challenges.  

NSU will compete at home for the first of three times this spring on April 16.