LAFAYETTE, La. — The LSU women’s cross country team came up with its most impressive showing to date this season, winning the team title at the Ragin’ Cajun/Popeye’s Invitational at Acadiana Park in Lafayette. The men’s team ran well, but did not qualify for the team scoring, using only a handful of runners.
For the Lady Tigers, it was their first victory outside of Baton Rouge since 1998.
“We ran well today on both sides,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Our ladies showed tremendous improvement today and our men, despite not fielding a complete team, ran extremely well.”
The Lady Tigers, who finished 11th at the Crimson Classic a week ago, were led by junior Bridget Cusack who finished fifth overall, completing the three-mile course in 18 minutes 14.46 seconds. Teammate Susanne Strunz finished one spot behind in 18:35.90.
Jenni Johnson came up with one of her best outings, finishing 11th, while Megan Szmajda finished 23rd and Katrina Flanders 27th to round out the Lady Tigers’ top five.
LSU finished with 72 points to lead the 12-team field, followed by Tulane with 78 and host-Louisiana-Lafayette in third with 85. Michaela Mannova of the University of New Orleans won the event in a time of 17:03.75.
Ryan Raiford paced the Tigers with a sixth place finish, completing the men’s four-mile course in 21:29.85. Jason Laine finished 13th, followed by Jason Carroll in 16th and Jarret Roche in 23rd.
Tulane, ranked second in the NCAA South Central Regional rankings, won the event convincingly with 40 points, followed by Northwestern State with 96 points and Lamar with 104. Peter Rotich of Tulane won the individual title with a time of 20:51.09.
The Tigers rested a number of key contributors on Saturday with next weekend’s LSU Invitational in mind. LSU will run full squads on both sides next week in their only home outing of the season with a majority of the Louisiana schools expected to participate.
The LSU Invitational will get underway at Highland Road Park in Baton Rouge at 8 a.m. with the women’s 6k run, while the men will follow with a five-mile run at 9 a.m.