LAFAYETTE – The LSU men’s cross country team won its second meet in three attempts, while the women’s team finished second at the Ragin’ Cajun Popeye’s Invitational in Lafayette Saturday morning.
Despite resting several top runners on each side, both teams performed well for the third consecutive week.
“We rested some people to save them for later in the season, but we still got a number of great performances and had a very nice meet,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “We had a few people step it up who we needed to step it up.
“We’ve got good depth on this team and this weekend was primarily used to help us to determine our travel squad. We’ve got to make some tough decisions on who will travel which is a good thing, it’s a problem we really haven’t had in awhile. This is a very competitive group and it showed today.”
The Tigers took five of the top 10 places despite not using two of their top three runners. Frans Schimper finished second overall in the men’s four-mile race with a time of 20 minutes 11.68 seconds.
Frank Ensley finished fifth in a time of 20:47.59, followed by Brent Martin in eighth, Josh Calmes in ninth and Brandon Guillory in tenth.
The Tigers finished with 34 points in the team scoring, with Tulane second with 52 points. Lamar finished third, followed by Southeastern Louisiana, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and Nicholls State tied for fifth and Grambling in seventh.
Solomon Kandie of Tulane won the men’s title in an overwhelming time of 19:43.24.
Bridget Cusack rebounded from a 21st place performance in Nashville last weekend and was the Lady Tigers’ top finisher in the women’s competition, placing fourth and completing the three-mile course in 17:44.65.
Amanda Occhi finished fifth in a time of 17:44.90, followed by Susanne Strunz in seventh, Megan Szmajda in ninth and Jennifer Johnson in 17th to round out the Lady Tigers’ top five.
Tulane won the team title with 27 points, taking the top three spots in the individual competition. Hanne Lyngstad won the women’s individual title in a time of 16:47.62. LSU finished second in the team competition with 42 points, followed by Southeastern Louisiana, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Loyola, Lamar, Grambling and Nicholls State.
LSU returns to action on Friday and will compete both full squads at the Auburn Invitational, a meet to be be attended by a majority of the Southeastern Conference members.