BATON ROUGE — It has been six years coming, but LSU’s Likhaya Dayile will be the first Tiger since 1994 to compete in the NCAA Cross Country Championships at 12:15 p.m. Monday afternoon in Ames, Iowa.
Dayile is the first LSU qualifier since Passmore Furusa in 1994, who ironically, did not finish on the very same course in 1994.
Dayile is only the fourth man in LSU history to qualify for the event and can become only the second in LSU history to complete the 10-kilometer event. Former Tiger All-American Terry Thornton finished fourth in the event in 1989 but did not finish in 1990. Dayile’s current coach Mark Elliott qualified but did not finish in 1989, as did Furusa in 1994.
Thornton remains the only All-American in the history of LSU cross country. Dayile has a legitimate opportunity to join that group after qualifying by virtue of a third place finish at the NCAA South Central Regional in Denton, Texas on Nov. 11.