BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Waco, Texas, to compete in the NCAA South Central Regional Championships on Saturday hosted by Baylor University.
The meet will be held at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, with the men’s 8K race slated for 10:00 a.m., while the women’s 6K race will follow at 11:00 a.m.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will face tough national competition in their respective meets. The Arkansas men’s team enters as the meet favorite with a No.1 regional ranking and a No. 22 national ranking. SMU is the top-rated women’s squad in the region with a No. 25 national ranking.
The top two finishing teams from each of the nine NCAA regionals, along with 13 at-large teams, earn bids to the NCAA Championships. The top four individual runners in each regional meet not on a qualifying team can earn a bid as well.
The LSU men’s team placed seventh in this meet in 2008, with their highest NCAA Regional finish coming in 2007 when they finished fifth. Also in 2007, LSU’s Joseph Simuchimba finished eighth overall, qualifying him for the NCAA Championships, where he placed 63rd.
This year, the LSU men look to sophomore Cullen Doody to lead the way. Doody has been the Tigers most consistent runner, as he has paced LSU in every meet this season. Doody is also LSU’s highest returning finisher from last year’s regional meet.
The Tigers also look to have strong finishes from juniors Ken Ehrhardt, Kyle Hecker, Tim Landry and Sean Swanner. Sophomores Frank Bohn and Luke Dessauer, and freshman Paras Shah will also compete for LSU. Hecker and Landry also scored for the Tigers at the regional meet in 2008.
On the women’s side, freshman Charlene Lipsey and sophomore Jenna Henssler will lead the Lady Tigers. Also, junior Katie Hamel, who missed the LSU Invitational and Chile Pepper Festival, will help pace LSU in her first 6K race of the season. Lipsey paced the Lady Tigers in their only 6K race of the season, clocking a 23:23.97 at the Chile Pepper Festival.
Junior Lauren Ybarzabal and sophomores Laura Carleton, Amber Abbott and Jessica Deutsch will also compete for LSU on Saturday.
Carleton is the highest returning runner from last year’s Waco regional where she clocked a 23:39.50. Henssler, Ybarzabal and Abbott also scored at the 2008 regional meet.
The NCAA Championships will be held in Terre Haute, Ind. beginning on Nov. 23.