JOURNAL SPORTS
EUGENE, Oregon — The Northwestern State men’s 4×400 relay foursome is coming into the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships under the radar, but relishing the opportunity.
Parkway product Will Achee, Desmond Duncan, Charlie Bartholomew and Kason Jones run Wednesday night in the national semifinals at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. They, and alternate Elijah Rowe, are the first NSU men’s 4×400 relay unit to reach the NCAA Outdoors since 2003.
A dozen teams from both NCAA regional meets qualified for the 24-team semifinals. Nine advance to Friday night’s championship race – but the 16 fastest times Wednesday are guaranteed All-America honors.
The Demons are in the first of three heats, racing at 10:36 CDT on Wednesday, with ESPN providing coverage. The top two finishers in each heat and the next three fastest times move on to the final.
Along with Northwestern in Heat 1 are LSU, Arkansas, LSU, Florida, USC, Tennessee, Houston and Oklahoma State – blueblood names in the sport. Only Princeton and North Carolina A&T joined NSU as 4×4 teams qualifying from Football Championship Subdivision Schools.
The Demons earned their trip to Eugene, known as “Track Town USA,” by breaking their own school record, clocking 3:02.73 at the NCAA East First Round. It is 17th best in the country this spring.
They have competed at LSU, Texas Tech and Florida during the regular season. LSU has the NCAA’s fastest mark, 2:58.47, one of eight times under three minutes.
“These guys know they are that good,” Demons’ associate head coach Adam Pennington said. “They are competing with a lot of confidence right now and they don’t fear anyone and they will go head-to-head with anyone.
“They don’t care what’s across your chest. They care about what’s underneath that jersey and that’s the heart. Every one of those four guys has a lot of heart and just to be able to battle with each other on a daily basis and have that type of practice setting with four guys willing to battle to get to this stage makes our 4×400 group really good.”
Going into the season, the school record in the event was 3:06.06, set just last season, a group in which Achee and Duncan were a part of.
Now, that time isn’t even in the top five in program history, as five times have passed that 3:06 mark with four finishing under 3:05.
Simply put, this is the fastest men’s 4×400 in school history by a wide margin.
After narrowly missing out on the gold medal in the indoor season at the Southland Conference Championships, the group came back in the outdoor season and dominated, clocking a 3:05.70 to win the gold medal by more than a second and a half.
The quartet is led by Achee and Bartholomew, both of whom made regionals in the open 400.
Achee has been feeling the support from his hometown of Bossier City.
“My mom was telling me that everyone back home is talking about and saying good things about me going to nationals,” Achee said. “It just feels really great.”
Achee, a sophomore, owns four school records, both the indoor and outdoor open 400 marks and as a member of the 4×400 relay teams. He broke and re-broke records on seven occasions just this season.
After a subpar regional time in the 400 qualifying, Achee responded with a big anchor leg of 43.98 in the 4×400 relay, the fastest anchor leg out of all 24 that participated in the NCAA East.
The relay team members motivate each other, especially to see who can run the fastest splits.
“We have a group chat called old guys vs. young guys,” Duncan said. “Will and I are the young guys and KJ and Charlie are the old guys. We are always texting about who runs the fastest splits. Right now, I think the young guys are winning.”
They have a chance to make more history as the first NSU men’s 4×400 relay to earn All-American status.
Demons’ sophomore long jumper Roy Morris, an Evangel product, also competes Wednesday night, aiming for All-America honors again after a breakout freshman season last year. Lady Demon sprinter Rushana Dwyer runs Thursday evening in the 400 meter semis.
NSU’s seven athlete contingent leads three Southland Conference schools competing in Eugene (Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana) and is second in the state to LSU, with SLU (1) the only other state school with a national meet qualifier.