BATON ROUGE — The LSU cross country team will get its first significant test of the season on Saturday when both the Tigers and Lady Tigers compete in the 28-team field at the Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The men will open with an eight-kilometer run at 9 a.m., while the women will follow with a 5k run at 10 a.m.
Adding to the significance of Saturday’s competition is the fact that the meet will be held at Harry Pritchett golf course in Tuscaloosa, the course that will host the SEC Championships on Oct. 30. As a result, LSU finds itself with a good opportunity to gauge its fitness level, as six SEC teams will be on hand.
“The main thing we want to get out of this week is a good feeling of how to prepare for the course for the SEC Championships,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “It’s also a good opportunity to see how some of the other SEC schools look and how they look on this course. It’s an important early test for us.”
The Tigers are coming off a third place finish at the Tulane Invitational last weekend, while the Lady Tigers placed eighth. Each team held out significant contributors, however, in preparation for this weekend’s competition.
Likhaya Dayile, the SEC runner-up in the 10,000-meter run during the outdoor track season, will make his cross country debut for LSU this weekend. On the women’s side, both Bridget Cusack and Susanne Strunz will run for the first time.
“We’ll come into this weekend with full squads on both sides,” added Elliott. “We sat some people last weekend because we knew this was an important competition. I’m anxious to see how some of our top people respond this weekend.”
SEC teams on hand this weekend include host-Alabama, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Kentucky. Other top teams on hand will be Florida State, Southern Mississippi, South Florida and South Alabama.
Following the Crimson Classic, LSU will head to Dallas on Sept. 23 for the SMU Invitational before returning home on Sept. 30 for the only home meet on the schedule for the 2000 season.