BATON ROUGE — The LSU cross country team will compete in its final tune-up before the SEC Championships on Saturday, when both squads travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Chilli Pepper Invitational hosted by Arkansas.
The men will get underway with a 10-kilometer run at 9:30 a.m., while the women will follow with a 6k run at 10:30 a.m.
“This is our last race before the conference meet so we’re trying to see how we stack up against some of the top teams in the nation,” said LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott. “It’s a very challenging course, this is one of the ultimate tests of competition in terms of teams competing and the level of difficulty of the course. It should prepare our athletes much better for SEC’s after a tough competition on a tough course.”
Third-ranked Arkansas highlights the 26-team field in the men’s race, while the Lady ‘Backs are ranked 10th in the women’s poll. Other top programs in attendance this weekend will be Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Vanderbilt and Cal-Irvine in what will be, arguably, the nation’s premier competition this weekend.
LSU’s Likhaya Dayile will get his first crack at the top runners in the SEC, as he will get to face the Arkansas contingency for the first time this season. Dayile, a top 10 finisher at the SEC Championships a year ago, has finished second in each of his first three races this season.
Dayile will look to make amends for last year’s outing at the Chilli Pepper Invitational, when he was among the leaders but fell with just over a kilometer remaining in the race and did not finish. The Tigers finished 11th in the team competition a year ago.
Susanne Strunz is the Lady Tigers’ top returning finisher of a year ago. Strunz placed 27th and helped the Lady Tigers to an 11th place finish as well.
Following the Chilli Pepper Invitational, both squads will take next weekend off before heading to Auburn for the SEC Championships on Oct. 29. The Tigers finished fourth a year ago while the Lady Tigers finished 11th.