BATON ROUGE — The LSU cross country team hopes to extend its season this Saturday, as both the men’s and women’s squads head to Denton, Texas for the NCAA South Central Regional with a berth in the NCAA Championships at stake.
The women will open with a six-kilometer run at 9 a.m., while the men will follow with a 10k run at 10 a.m. The NCAA South Central Region is comprised of teams from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas.
LSU has never qualified a team for the NCAA Championships in cross country but have qualified several individuals. The Tigers last sent a runner to the NCAA Championships in 1994, while the Lady Tigers last had an NCAA qualifier in 1996.
The Tigers, however, have perhaps their best chance in many years to qualify for the NCAA Championship field on the wings of a fourth place finish at the SEC Championships in their last outing. The top two teams automatically qualify while several at-large bids will also be available throughout the country.
“I think it’s one of our best chances ever to make the NCAA field,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Arkansas is the clear favorite for this region and should win, but after that it’s up for grabs. I think we will be right there with Texas, Texas A&M and Tulane battling for that other automatic bid.”
Individually, the top four runners not associated with the automatic qualifying teams gain entry into the individual NCAA competition, giving LSU’s top runner Likhaya Dayile, a ninth place finisher at the SEC meet, a very good shot at making the NCAA field in the event the Tigers don’t advance.
“Likhaya has a good shot to qualify individually if we don’t make it as a team,” Elliott added. “It’s been awhile since we sent someone to the NCAA Championships, but ultimately we’re not going there to send one person, we want to send the entire team.”
The Tigers finished seventh at the NCAA South Central Regional a year ago, it’s highest finish ever at a regional competition.
Expectations are not as high on the women’s side where the likelihood of qualifying a team is remote, yet the opportunity to qualify individuals may exist.
“I think we can be a top 10 team on the women’s side,” said Elliott. “Susanne Strunz or Bridget Cusack each have an outside shot of making the NCAA field, I think that’s our best shot of qualifying here. As a team, however, I’m looking to finish in the top 10. We’d like to redeem ourselves for our SEC showing.”
The Lady Tigers finished 11th at the SEC Championships in their last outing, while Strunz made All-SEC with a 15th place finish and Cusack finished 21st.
The NCAA Championships will be held in Ames, Iowa on Nov. 20.