BATON ROUGE — Following a weekend off the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams return to action this Saturday at the 19th annual Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Arkansas-hosted event will take place at Agri Park. Collegiate competition begins with the men’s 10K race at 9:45 a.m. The women run a 6K course at 10:30 a.m.
The field will be massive as 37 teams are scheduled to line up on the men’s side and 43 teams are entered in the women’s race.
“This is the biggest field we’ll run in all year,” said LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott. “I want our teams to run against the best. It gives us a realistic view of what kind of team we have.”
Elliott’s teams will be tested by some of the nation’s top talent as the women’s race includes three ranked teams, in No. 5 Arkansas, No. 19 Virginia Tech and No. 24 Texas Tech, as well as Baylor, who is receiving votes in the latest national poll.
The men’s race is also highlighted Arkansas, a squad that is ranked ninth this week, as well as Texas A&M, who is receiving votes in the national rankings.
Even with the talent-laden fields, Elliott feels his teams have a shot at top-10 finishes.
Both teams will shoot for that goal using different strategies.
The women, who Elliott views as unique because of a roster that boosts no one superstar, has still posted respectable showings because of their ability to run together in a group, a strategy that has allowed them to keep their points totals low and beat some of the better squads.
The men have also recorded impressive team finishes, doing so on the coattails of some key contributors.
Leading the pack has been junior Joseph Simuchimba. Individually, the Chingola, Zambia, native has not finished outside the top-three this season and owns an 8K time that ranks among the top-eight in the Southeastern Conference this year.
He will be leaned on even more heavily on Saturday at senior Elkana Kosgei and junior Reuben Twijukye will be taking the weekend off.
Overall, Elliott feels this meet will serve as a good barometer for where his team is at prior to the championship season, which begins Oct. 27 at the SEC Championships.
“We have run at this meet for the last five years and the course hasn’t changed,” said Elliott. “That allows me to evaluate our progress better from this point last year to now. If the athletes can compete better and beat their personal best on this course than I’ll be pleased with the outcome.”