BATON ROUGE — Following outstanding performances at the LSU Invitational over the weekend, cross country runners Jimmy Wiggins and Katie Denton were named the SEC’s Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Athletes of the Week it was announced Monday by the conference office.
Wiggins and Denton are the first LSU cross country athletes to earn SEC accolades this season and the first to be recognized since Oct. 2, 2002 when cross country runner Tomario Thomas was honored by the conference office.
A native of Covington, La., Wiggins led the Tigers to their first win of the season, taking home top individual honors with a time of 25:59.10 over the 8K course. His time was nearly 15 seconds faster then the field’s runner up and marked his second best 8K time of the season.
A milestone on many levels, Wiggins’ win was the first of his collegiate career and the first by an LSU athlete at the LSU Invitational since 1995 when Passmore Furusa took home top individual honors.
Denton, a Baton Rouge native, led the Lady Tiger squad for the third straight week, finishing fifth individually while leading LSU to a third-place team finish. Denton’s 6K time of 22:43.90 ranks second in the conference this season and was nearly a minute and a half improvement over her previous season-best 6K mark.
Wiggins, Denton and the rest of the LSU cross country team will return to action in two weeks when they travel to Auburn, Ala., for the Auburn Invitational, Oct. 10.