HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana returns to full-squad competition with a pair of meets Friday and Saturday. Most of the squad will participate at the NSU Invitational Friday in Natchitoches, La., while the distance runners will travel to Ruston, La., to compete at the Jim Mize Invitational.

“We're excited about the Northwestern State meet,” Brady said. “Their Mondo surface is fast and we should pick up some good times in the spring events.”

A select few athletes were able to participate in the Texas Relays last weekend, but the NSU Invitational is a smaller meet that affords the Southeastern coaching staff more one-one-one coaching time.

“The meet will be mostly conference and regional teams,” Brady said. “The field will be very comparable to us and we'll get to see how our youngsters match up.”

Southeastern will send its distance runners to a separate meet Saturday for a chance to stretch their legs.

“We're sending our distance runners to Louisiana Tech,” Brady said. “It is a better environment for distance runners and there will be some tough competition.

Despite spreading out the squad Brady feels he has narrowed down the list of who will be  competing come the postseason for Southeastern.

“We've paired it down a little bit,” head coach Sean Brady said. “We're now focusing on our young men and women that will help us at the conference meet. Those that have met the qualifying standard, or are close, are the one we're going to put our time and effort into.”

Field events kickoff the action Friday at 10 a.m. and Saturday's running events begin at 4 p.m. The meets mark the final month of regular-season competition for the Lions and Lady Lions. 

“This is the time of year we have expectations of seeing our kids come alive,” Brady said. “We're in our last cycle before the conference meet.”