BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams head east to Fort Jackson, S.C., for the 2010 SEC Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 1.
The women will lead off with a 6k race at 9 a.m. CDT. The men follow with an 8k run at 10 a.m. The races will be held at Fort Jackson’s Hilton Field, which is located just outside of Columbia.
Full championship information can be found here 2010 SEC Cross Country Championships Info.
Three SEC men’s teams enter the race ranked in this week’s USTFCCCA Men’s Division I Top 30 poll, including No. 10 Arkansas, No. 26 Florida and No. 27 Alabama. No women’s teams enter the championship ranked in the top 30.
Alabama claimed last year’s men’s race, while Florida took home the women’s title. LSU looks to rebound from last year’s disappointing results at the SEC Championships in which both teams finished 11th.
“The kids are excited,” said cross country coach Mark Elliott. “They are prepared and ready to run. This course suits our team well. Our goal is to go there, be competitive and certainly try to improve from last year.”
The men are led by senior Richard Chautin, who has three top-five finishes this season, with two coming in 8k races. His best time came at the season-opening MSU Invitational, in which he clocked an 8k time of 24 minutes, 41.13 seconds.
Seniors Tim Landry and Alan Sticker and junior Cullen Doody have also put up good results for the Tigers this season. Landry has collected two top 10 finishes, while Doody has posted 10th and 11th-place finishes this year. Sticker’s best race came at the LSU Invitational where he finished 16th while clocking an 8k time of 28:09.87.
“Alan Sticker has run very well in practice recently and is running like we expected him to,” said Elliott. “Richard Chautin and Cullen Doody are also running well. If these guys put it together and run well, then we should have great results.”
Junior Laura Carleton has led the Lady Tigers in each race this season, gathering three top-10 finishes. Her best race came at the Chile Pepper Festival where she clocked a 5k time of 18:03.61.
Sophomore twins Brea and Dakota Goodman have been very welcomed additions to the team this year. The Reedsburg, Wisc., natives both have two top-20 finishes, with their best results coming in Fayetteville, Ark., where Dakota clocked an 18:45.96 and Brea finished in 18:47.90.
Fellow sophomores Charlene Lipsey and Leigh-Ann Naccari have also come on strong for the Lady Tigers this season. Like the Dakota twins, Lipsey and Naccari both have two top-20 finishes in 2010.
“We have seven women that are running very close together,” Elliott said. “This is probably the best team we have had in several years. If we run up to our potential, then we should do well.”
Follow the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams on Twitter @LSUTrackField and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUtrackfield.