BATON ROUGE — In the only home race of the season the LSU cross country team posted an impressive outing as the men’s team won gold and the women came in second at the LSU Invitational Saturday.
“Both the men’s and women’s teams did very well today,” said head coach Pat Henry. “It’s great to do so well in a home meet especially with quality teams like Rice in the field. We were able to take advantage of the fact that it was our home course and I am very pleased with their overall performances.”
The Tigers dominated the men’s field scoring just 48 team points to runner-up McNeese State’s 57 points and Louisiana Tech’s 75 points.
LSU’s men’s team posted three top-15 performances as sophomore Tomario Thomas paced the squad finishing eighth in the 8K race with a time of 26:19.35. Sophomores Nick Accardo and Matthew Carroll comprised the remainder of the Tigers’ top-three as Accardo finished 10th (26:19.35) overall and Carroll placed 13th (26:44.70).
On the women’s side, Rice took home the team title with 49 points, while the Lady Tigers finished in second with 64 points and New Orleans placed third, scoring 89 points.
Senior Marian Burnett led all LSU runners placing seventh in the 6K race with a 22:47.02 clocking. Two sophomores, in Katie Denton and Neisha Bernard-Thomas, rounded out the Lady Tigers’ top-three finishing 10th and 11th respectively, with times of 22:53.58 and 22:57.76.
The LSU cross country team returns to action Sat., Oct. 5 when it travels to Terra Haute, Ind. to compete in the Indiana State Invitational.
LSU INVITATIONAL
Men’s Individual Results
1. Kris Gilmore, McNeese St. 25:42.17
8. Tomario Thomas 26:29.35
10. Nick Accardo 26:35.25
13. Matthew Carroll 26:44.70
18. Ben Shumaker 26:58.19
20. Jarrett Roche 27:02.98
21. Roland LaBlanc 27:04.09
22. Jason Laine 27:10.50
25. Andrew Huston 27:20.46
43. Andrew Baier 29:42.44
Women’s Individual Results
1. Sarah Meza, NO 22:08.70
7. Marian Burnett 22:47.02
10. Katie Denton 22:53.58
11. Neisha Bernard-Thomas 22:57.76
17. Michelle Hymel 23:20.25
19. Katrina Flanders 23:28.88
24. Sandra Smith 24:07.43
29. Megan Kliebert 24:15.05
35. Sarah Bailey 24:32.94
37. Anne Simpson 24:39.21
57. Sarah Colosimo 26:35.18