AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU cross country team came up with a solid outing Saturday morning, as the men’s team finished ninth out of 32 teams, while the Lady Tigers finished 10th at the Auburn Invitational at Indian Pines Golf Course.
Likhaya Dayile continued to look strong in the early stages of the season, as he finished second in the men’s competition for the second consecutive week. The Tigers finished third among SEC schools on hand, giving LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott, whose team will return to Indian Pines next month for the SEC Championships.
“It was definitely a good outing for both squads,” said Elliott. “I like the way we competed today. We ran everyone and got good efforts from everyone. It also helped us to get a race in on this course before the SEC Championships next month.”
Dayile completed the men’s 8-kilometer course in a time of 24 minutes 26.87 seconds. Dayile finished behind only perennial All-American David Kimani of Alabama, who navigated the course in an extremely fast time of 23:48.
Jimmy Wiggins finished 26th, Tomario Thomas placed 52nd, Kenny Henry finished 87th and Brandon Guillory finished 92nd to round out the Tigers top five finishers.
Alabama won the team title, followed by Baylor, Texas A&M, Florida State and Tennessee to round out the top five teams.
On the women’s side, the Lady Tigers came up with a top 10 finish led by Susanne Strunz. The senior from Germany finished 12th in the women’s individual competition, completing the 5k course in 17:16.00.
Mariam Burnett finished 57th, followed by Lindsay Daigle in 73rd, Katie Denton in 93rd and Megan Szmajda in 106th to round out the Lady Tigers’ five scorers.
Victoria Gill of Florida State won the women’s individual title in a time of 16:18.30. Baylor edged Florida State for the women’s team title, followed by Wichita State, Auburn and Belmont.
LSU returns to action next Saturday when it hosts its lone home competition of the season, the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park beginning at 8:30 a.m.