BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend to compete in the 22nd Annual Chile Pepper Invitational.
The men’s 10k race is set to begin at 9:45 a.m. CDT on Saturday. The women will follow with a 5k race at 10:30 a.m.
Known as one of the premiere running events in the country, this year’s competition features more than 60 schools from across the country. The men’s race consists of five schools ranked in this week’s USTFCCCA Top 25, including host and sixth-ranked Arkansas, No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 7 Indiana, No. 16 Oklahoma and No. 21 Tulsa.
The women’s race features the same Top 25-ranked schools as the men’s race, with the exception of Tulsa which is unranked in the women’s poll.
“This is a good competition to go to prior to the conference meet because the increase in competition will tell us where we are,” said cross country coach Mark Elliott. “We will be competing against many more teams than we have this season, including several Top 10 teams.”
Senior Richard Chautin will once again lead the way for the men. The Arnaudville, La., native has placed in the top five in three consecutive meets, marking the first time a Tiger runner has accomplished the feat since Joseph Simuchimba in 2007.
After starting the season slow due to injury, fellow senior Alan Sticker looks to have a strong performance this weekend.
“Alan will be completely healthy for the first time this season,” Elliott said. “If he runs up to his potential, he could have a very good race this weekend.”
On the women’s side, junior Laura Carleton has made Tiger history as well. She is the first women’s runner since the turn of the century to finish in the Top 10 in three consecutive meets.
“Laura has been running great all year,” said Elliott. “If things go well Saturday, she could run her best time all season.”
Coming off her best performance of the year, sophomore Charlene Lipsey heads to Fayetteville looking to continue her recent success. Lipsey ran a career-best 5k time of 18 minutes, 14.06 seconds last Saturday in Lake Charles, La.
“Charlene ran a great race last weekend at McNeese State,” Elliott said.” It shows that she is getting in better shape.”
The women will also benefit from the return of sophomores Brea and Dakota Goodman, who missed last weekend’s race due to illness. They will provide the Lady Tigers with depth that the women’s team has not seen in some time.
“These are the best seven women runners that I have traveled with over the last few years,” said Elliott.
Follow the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams on Twitter @LSUTrackField and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUtrackfield.