BATON ROUGE — After last week’s meet at Texas A&M was cancelled due to rain and poor course conditions, the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams finally begin their seasons Friday at the Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The meet, hosted by the University of Alabama, will begin with the women’s 5K race at 5 p.m., followed by the men’s 5K at 5:30 p.m. Both races will take place at Harry Pritchett running park.
The field consists of 16 teams in both the men’s and women’s races, including conference foes Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee. On the men’s side, Alabama boasts the No. 10 national ranking according to the USTFCCCA rankings that came out Tuesday. The Auburn men’s team was ranked 13th nationally in the poll.
“The field is going to be a little tougher this week, but we knew we’d eventually have to run the second meet,” LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott said. “There’s no added pressure though and fortunately the kids had an extra week to train.”
Leading the LSU men are juniors Ken Ehrhardt, Kyle Hecker, Tim Landry and Sean Swanner. Experienced sophomores Luke Dessauer, Cullen Doody and Kenneth Schiffman will also compete for the Tigers.
“Our men’s team is stronger as a whole,” Elliott said. “There’s no star that we’re used to having since we redshirted (letter winners) Andy Florek and Richard Chautin. But I expect Luke Dessauer, Cullen Doody and the others to do very well this weekend.
“We may not have the race winner, but I hope we’ll have enough of our guys high in the pack to show some team strength.”
Landry, Doody and Hecker finished in LSU’s top five in at least two meets a piece last season.
Making their LSU debuts for the men will be sophomore Frank Bohn, and true freshmen Roger Cooke, Paras Shah and Kyle Steele.
On the women’s side, seasoned sophomores Amber Abbott, Laura Carleton, Jessica Deutsch and Jenna Henssler will lead the team, along with seniors Amal Esmail and Katie Hamel, and junior Lauren Ybarzabal.
Carleton was LSU’s top finisher at the LSU Invitational last season and finished in LSU’s top three in all six meets in which she competed. Henssler and Ybarzabal also competed in all six races for the Lady Tigers in 2008.
A few female distance runners from the LSU track team will also compete Friday, including senior Kayann Thompson, junior Devon Williams and freshman Charlene Lipsey.
“Kayann, Devon and Charlene all run the 800-meter in track and that helps them in cross country,” Elliott said. “They help the team, but I have to limit their meets in cross country because of track. I wanted them to have the opportunity to race against some tough competition this weekend.”
Following the Crimson Classic, both the men’s and women’s teams return to Baton Rouge to prepare for the LSU Invitational, which will be held Saturday, Sept. 26, at Highland Road Park.