BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams begin the championship portion of their season Saturday when they travel to Lexington, Ky., for the SEC Championships.
Races will take place at the Kentucky Horse Park. Action begins at 9 a.m. with the men’s 8K race. The women follow at 10 a.m. with a 6K run.
Both squads will be looking to improve on their finishes at this meet a year ago as each team placed ninth overall.
The field will be loaded with talented competition as each race features three nationally-ranked teams. The men’s competition is highlighted by No. 8 Arkansas, No. 12 Alabama and No. 30 Florida. The women’s race includes No. 13 Arkansas, No. 27 Florida and No. 29 Georgia.
Even with the talent laden pool of competitors LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott still has high expectations for his teams.
“I think the men have the personnel to be in the top three or four,” said Elliott. “With three ranked schools in the field I think how we finish here will be a good indication of what our chances are like for the national championships.”
Elliott won’t be holding out any of his top athletes this weekend as Elkana Kosgei and Reuben Twijukye are once again expected to run for the Tigers. Both sat out the Chile Pepper Festival two weeks ago in order to rest up for the upcoming track season.
Junior Joseph Simuchimba is expected to lead the men’s squad as he has done in each of the Tigers’ four races this season. He also holds LSU’s best hope for all-conference honors, a distinction placed upon the race’s top 14 individuals, as he enters the meet with the SEC’s 11th-best 8K time of the season (23:56.93).
On the women’s side Elliott would consider a finish in the middle portion of the standings a very solid outing for the Lady Tigers.
“If they run well they should be in the top seven, and top six if they run extremely well,” said Elliott.
The Lady Tigers will be anchored by senior Kate Accardo. She has been LSU’s top finisher in each of its four races this season, and enters the meet with the Lady Tigers’ fastest 6K time of the year (22:37.83).
In all, Elliott feels his teams are primed for a good run. In addition to solid training, both squads took last weekend off in preparation for Saturday.
“Right now I feel this team is rested and ready to go,” said Elliott. “When they fire the gun we’ll see what happens.”