Northwestern State University of Louisiana’s cross-country teams closed off their season at the Southland Conference Championships on Nov. 1 in New Orleans.
NSU’s respective teams both placed 12th out of the 12 SLC teams. The women’s team earned a total of 363 points, and the men’s team earned a total of 367 points.
Both the women’s team of Lamar University and the men’s team of the University of the Incarnate Word walked away with championship titles.
After getting a late start to coaching in July, head cross-country coach Payten Vidourek explained how the team grew throughout such a short amount of time in the season.
“Truly it’s been a day-by-day process. Getting them so late was definitely a learning curve,” Vidourek said. “I would say we were really together as a team, especially with me being so close to them in age. They grew together in terms of culture, especially because it’s a new team.”
Not only did the athletes grow together, but Vidourek decided the coaching legacy he wanted to set for the team.
“I think I learned my coaching style. Sure I know the science behind it just from being an athlete prior, but learning how I want to coach is definitely something interesting,” Vidourek said. “There were a lot of learning curves with that as well. Probably halfway through the semester, I learned what was working with this group of athletes, and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
After leading the women’s side for the majority of the season, Leah Thompson placed 75th out of 93 finishers in the 6K race with a time of 26:04.77; she was the first Lady Demon to cross the finish line. Vidourek explained that Thompson led the women’s side successfully during her final cross-country season.
“Especially because I ran with Leah for a few years, she has always been very positive and that’s always been something very nice,” Vidourek said. “She was a good role model in terms of what you need to do and the sacrifices you need to make to be a good athlete.”
Following Thompson towards the finish line, Faith Bryant finished 82nd with a time of 27:27.17, Chesney Mathews finished 85th with a time of 27:52.97, Samantha Todaro finished 88th with a time of 30:36.61, Kallie Evers finished 90th with a time of 31:23.95 and Brea Baca-White finished 91st with a time of 34:37.20.
After leading the Lady Demons in the first two meets at McNeese State University and Rice University, Lalaina Wood was not able to finish the cross-country season due to injury.
Bryant, a junior radiological technologies major, said “I knew this was the final meet of the season, and I have to do as best I could. I mean, the weather was terrible, so that didn’t help at all, but it was still fun and I just had to push through. It wasn’t what I expected, but that’s okay.”
Like many of the other runners on the team, Bryant set personal goals and expectations for herself that she worked to accomplish throughout the season.
“I wanted to be more disciplined this season; I knew it was going to be hard but also really fun,” Bryant said. “I wanted it to be a good experience to see what Division 1 life was like.”
After battling an injury leading up to the finale, Korbin Shumate led the men’s side once again in his final race of the season. He placed 77th out of 98 finishers. Vidourek shared that the veteran runner set a tone for the Demons.
“Korbin was very much friends with the guys, but they understand that he has the experience, he has the speed and that there is something that they can learn from him,” Vidourek said. “I think the age stuff just showed that there’s little maturity in things that you don’t see, but overall, on the big aspect of it, you can tell he’s done this before and it’s not his first time.”
Following Shumate in the men’s side, Landon Loyd finished 81st with a time of 30:30.10, Kaden Elliott finished 85th with a time of 30:35.12, Owen Rue finished 86th with a time of 31:32.10 and Mason Bayne finished 90th with a time of 32:28.96.
Along with his other teammates, Loyd, a freshman sports recreational management major, was focused on the conference meets from the beginning.
“All these other meets were just practices for us just to see where we stand with other teams,” Loyd said. “So we would go into practice just talking about the conference — not the meeting coming up next or the one after that — but we were getting ready for the conference meets.”
After completing his first season as a Demon, Loyd shared advice for future runners starting out.
“Just go to practice. We practice at 6 a.m., and no one wants to get up at 6 a.m. The only people that are up at that time are people that have 8 a.m. classes that want to take two hours to look pretty, ROTC that’s chanting and us,” Loyd said. “Just because you have a faster time or you think you belong at a better school than this timewise, just humble yourself because there’s probably people better than you everywhere.”
Now that he has tested the waters and knows what works best for the team in his first year of coaching, Vidourek is excited to see what the future holds for cross-country.
“I think that’s something to look forward to in the next few years, especially in college athletics. It’s very easy to just transfer somewhere else; we have a good baseline, and that’s what we established this year,” Vidourek said.
Several runners will be moving into the indoor track and field season in early January. Vidourek shared his thoughts going into the season after finding his footing in coaching.
“I know that’s more of what the athletes are into — especially on the guy’s side — now that we have a full season and I know how they train and what works for them,” Vidourek said. “On the girls’ side, not many of them are running track, but that makes me more eager to have them for the next summer going into cross-country season.”
