FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The LSU men’s cross country team finished seventh in a very tough field at the Chili Pepper Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., Saturday morning, while the Lady Tigers finished 10th in the women’s team competition. In the final outing before the Southeastern Conference Championships, each team performed well, but not at the level that had made both teams among the most pleasant surprises in the SEC this season. “It was a little bit of a tough meet for us today, not due to competition, but due to ourselves,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “We have a couple of people not competing to their standards. We have some people on the men’s side that are in position to step it up and need to step it up at meets like this and didn’t today.” Billy Bohlke paced the Tigers once again, completing the men’s 10-kilometer course in 31 minutes 51 seconds and finishing 22nd. Franks Ensley and Kenny Henry finished 34th and 35th respectively, while Frans Schimper placed 44th and Brent Martin 62nd to round out the Tigers’ top five. Arkansas won the men’s team title in the 18-team field, claiming its 11th consecutive win dating back to the 1998 season. Rice finished second, followed by Oklahoma State, Abilene Christian and South Alabama. The Lady Tigers were paced by Martina Barkman who finished 25th out of 162 runners. Barkman finished the women’s 5k course in a time of 18:40. Lindsay Daigle finished 37th in a time of 19:06, followed by Staci Cusimano in 52nd, Lauren Byrd in 55th and Megan Szmajda in 70th to round out the Lady Tigers top five. In an unfortunate turn of events, Bridget Cusack was in the top 15 with less than 500 meters to go, but was forced to pull out of the race and could not complete the course. “Bridget’s situation is unfortunate because she has worked so hard to get herself in the position to be a very competitive runner,” said Henry. “We don’t know exactly what happened yet, but Bridget is as tough a kid as you will find and if she could have finished she would have.” Arkansas took the top spot in the 22-team women’s competition as well, with Lady ‘Back runners claiming four of the top five spots to finish with a miniscule total of 20 points. Amy Yoder of Arkansas won the women’s individual title in an impressive time of 17:01. Wisconsin finished second in the team competition followed by Rice, Wichita State and TCU to round out the top five teams. LSU takes next weekend off to rest for the Southeastern Conference Championships in Nashville on October 30.
Cross Country Dominates Home Opener