FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – After a rest week following three straight weeks of competition to begin the season, the LSU cross country teams will look to continue their strong start to the campaign at the Chile Pepper Festival on the Arkansas campus on Saturday.
The men’s team has finished inside the top two in all three races this year. The women’s team has placed within the top three every time they have competed in 2011.
“The Chile Pepper Festival is a great competition, and it’s also the first meet we are going to where we will be running against more than eight or nine schools,” LSU head coach Mark Elliott said. “This is the toughest competition we’ll face before the Southeastern Conference Championships so it will be a good indicator of what to expect from the conference meet.”
The Tigers were led by senior Cullen Doody, who finished sixth in 19 minutes 40 seconds over four miles at the McNeese Cowboys Stampede two weeks ago.
Senior Richard Chautin was the next Tiger across the line with an eighth place finish of 19:48.41.
The Lady Tigers were led by junior Leigh-Ann Naccari at McNeese as she ran a personal record time of 17:48.00 over 5,000 meters leading LSU to third place in the team competition.
Naccari finished third as four Lady Tigers were among the first 20 runners across the finish line.
Brea Goodman, Laura Aleman, and Dakota Goodman finished 11th, 14th and 19th respectively for LSU.
“On the women’s side, we’re going to run our full team this race including Charlene Lipsey,” Elliott said. “This course suites Charlene because a track runner can still compete well and run a fast time.”
The men’s team begins the day with a 9k run at 9:45 a.m. CDT and the women will start their 6k race at 10:30 a.m.
Follow the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams on Twitter @LSUTrackField and at www.Facebook.com/LSUtrackfield.