BATON ROUGE — After a weekend off the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams return to action this Saturday as they play host to the LSU Tiger Cross Country Festival at Highland Road Park.
The meet, which will feature both collegiate and high school competition, will begin at 7:45 a.m. with the women’s 6K run. The high school girls are next at 8:30 a.m., followed by the collegiate men (8K) at 9:15 a.m. and the boy’s high school race at 10 a.m.
South Alabama as well as in-state foes UL-Lafayette, Tulane and Southeastern Louisiana highlight the field of collegiate competitors that includes eight teams in the men’s run and 10 on the women’s side.
“This should be a competitive meet for the teams we have coming in,” said LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott. “I expect South Alabama to be the biggest challenger, but it’s our home meet and we are going in with the idea that we want to come out on top.”
The Tigers will look to senior Drew Haro to help lead them to a victory. Haro, who will be making his season debut, was the Tigers’ top finisher in two of their five races a year ago, including the NCAA South Central Regional Championships.
LSU will also depend a trio of freshmen, in Brett Borne, Alan Sticker and Michael Florek, who turned in impressive collegiate debuts at the Lobo Invitational two weeks ago.
On the women’s side, LSU will lean on the services of sophomore Rachael Graham. The Greenwell Springs, La., native recorded the first top-10 finisher of her career at the Lobo Invitational to pace the Lady Tiger squad.
Up next, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will travel to Auburn, Ala., for the Auburn Invitational on Sept. 30.