NEW ORLEANS — The LSU men’s cross country team looked solid, despite not using a number of its top athletes, finishing third out of 11 teams at the Tulane Invitational at Elysian Fields in New Orleans Friday evening.
The Lady Tigers, who held out their top three runners, finished eighth in the women’s competition.
“I’m pleased with the way both teams looked this evening,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “We held out a number of people on both sides because of a very important competition next week and a number of athletes took advantage of their opportunity tonight. For our men to finish in the top three with basically our top seven or so runners not competing tells me that we have some depth on this team.”
The Tigers were led by Jarrett Roche`, who completed the five-kilometer course in 15 minutes 43 seconds to finish 12th. Jason Laine finished 17th, Brandon Guillory finished 19th, Ben Shumaker placed 23rd and Charlie Hunt placed 27th to round out the Tigers’ top five.
Tulane won the men’s competition with 29 points, followed by Alabama with 41. The Tigers finished third with 98. Chris Mutai of Alabama won the event in a time of 14:47.30.
The Lady Tigers were led by Jennifer Johnson who finished 24th, completing the women’s two-mile course in a time of 12:39.80. Katrina Flanders placed 32nd, Nicole Driscoll finished 42nd, Dechelle Mack placed 44th and Amy Courville 52nd to round out the Lady Tigers’ top five.
In the women’s competition, Alabama won the event with 64 points, while Tulane and Mississippi State tied for second place with 82. Michaela Mannova of the University of New Orleans won the women’s event in a time of
11:00.50.
LSU returns to action next Saturday at the Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The meet will be attended by a majority of the top Southeastern Conference teams and will also be run on the same course that will host the Conference championship on Oct. 30.