AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU women’s cross country team finished 13th Saturday morning at the Auburn Invitational at Indian Pines Golf Course in its second-to-last outing before the Southeastern Conference Championships.
The University of New Orleans took the women’s team title, taking five of the top 18 spots in the race and winning ease with 54 points. Host-Auburn was second with 86, followed by Western Kentucky.
The Lady Tigers were led by Susanne Strunz, who placed 26th, finishing the five-kilometer course in 18 minutes 12.88 seconds.
Elizabeth Woodward finished 51st for the Lady Tigers, followed by Megan Szmajda in 62nd, Jenni Johnson in 65th and Katrina Flanders in 75th to round out their top five.
“We held out our top runner, Bridget Cusack, today and gave the rest of the team some work,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Overall we performed pretty well. We still need to work on a few things before we get to the conference meet.”
Marjo Venalainen of Kennesaw State won the event in a time of 16:29.00.
LSU will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., next week for the Chilli Pepper Invitational, a showcase of some of the premier teams that LSU will see in the NCAA South Central Regional Championships.