BATON ROUGE — LSU’s men’s and women’s cross country teams will have their final tune-up before the SEC Championships Saturday when they travel to Fayetteville, Ark. for the 16th-annual Chile Pepper Festival.
Action from the Agri Park cross country course will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the men’s 10K run. The women’s 6K race will follow at 10:30 a.m.
The field of competitors will consist of over 35 teams from around the country, including No. 11 SMU and No. 21 Arkansas on the women’s side and No. 19 Oklahoma State and No. 26 Georgia on the men’s side.
The Tigers are coming off a solid third-place finish at the Auburn Invitational Monday. Junior Patrick Gavin was the top finisher for the LSU squad, finishing the 8K course with a season-best time of 25:20.87. He and senior Jimmy Wiggins are expected to anchor the Tigers this weekend. Wiggins has recorded top-10 finishes in two of his three races this season.
Looking to build off a seventh-place finish in Auburn, the Lady Tigers will rely on seniors Katie Denton and Ruth Nanyinza to pace the LSU squad Saturday. Denton has been among the Lady Tigers’ top-two finishers in each of the first three meets of the season, while Nanyinza won the LSU Invitational three weeks ago in her collegiate cross country debut.
Following the Chile Pepper Festival, the Tiger and Lady Tigers will take two weeks off before returning to Fayetteville for the SEC Championships, Oct. 30.