BATON ROUGE — The LSU cross country team kicks off its 2000 season Friday evening with the first of eight meets, traveling to New Orleans for the first time since 1998 at the Tulane Invitational at Elysian Fields. The women will get underway at 5 p.m. with a two-mile run, while the men will follow at 5:30 p.m. with a five-kilometer race.
The Lady Tigers return five runners from last year’s squad that finished fourth at the Southeastern Conference Championships, while the Tigers, eighth place finishers at the conference meet a year ago, return seven members.
With a big meet in Tuscaloosa, Ala., next weekend in which a majority of the top SEC schools will be on hand, LSU coach Mark Elliott will be selective in who he uses in New Orleans on Friday. In addition, the course that LSU will run on in Alabama next weekend is the same one that will host the SEC Championships on Oct. 30, adding importance to the meet.
“With a big meet at Alabama next weekend, I’m going to hold a number of my top runners out and let them open up in Tuscaloosa,” said Elliott. “I already have a good feel for the make-up of the team, the Tulane meet will give me a better indication of who will claim the remaining spots on my travel squad and see who what kind of shape we’re in.”
Top returnees Bridget Cusack and Susanne Strunz will not compete for the Lady Tigers until next weekend, while on the men’s side, Likhaya Dayile, the SEC runner-up in the 10,000 meter run during the outdoor track season, will wait until next week to open up.
Joining LSU and host-Tulane on Friday will be a number of the Louisiana schools, including New Orleans and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Following the Tulane Invitational, the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa for the Crimson Classic next Saturday. The Tigers then have a difficult test at SMU on Sept. 23 before returning home for their only home meet of the 2000 season on Sept. 30.