BATON ROUGE – The LSU’s men’s and women’s cross country teams are set to compete Friday in the 39th-annual Rice Invitational Cross Country Meet at Rice Intramural Fields.
The meet will begin with the 12 women’s teams running the 4k course at 6:15 p.m. CDT. Eleven men’s teams will run the 6k course at 6:45 p.m.
The Tigers will be competing against Lamar, McNeese State, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Prairie View, Texas A&M International, Texas Southern, Texas State, Rice and UT-Brownsville. The Lady Tigers will be racing against Rice, Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Houston Baptist, McNeese State, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Prairie View, Texas A&M International, Texas Southern and UT-Brownsville.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers opened up the 2014 season with solid performances at McNeese State’s Cross Country Relay on Aug. 29.
Senior Andria Aguilar and junior Morgan Schuetz placed first in the women’s 6k race with a time of 19 minutes, 52.58 seconds. Sophomore Ashley Welborn and Chaiss Matthews finished a minute behind Aguilar and Schuetz for a second-place finish.
On the men’s team, junior Travis Pope and senior Philip Primeaux were runners-up out of 17 teams. The two completed the men’s 8k course in 25:19.28 to finish just nine seconds behind McNeese State’s Ryan Holroyd and Nathan Jones.
The LSU’s cross country teams look to keep the momentum this week while competing in Houston.
Along with the Lady Tigers who took home first and second place at McNeese, senior Andrea Maxwell, sophomores Avery Danielle, Elizabeth Dunning and Jenna Walker, and freshmen Carley Boyce and Rebecca Little will be competing in the Rice Invitational Cross Country Meet.
Senior Philip Dempsey and freshmen D.C. Lipani, Bryan Stamey and Daniel Tanner will join Pope and Primeaux to compete on the men’s team.
For tomorrow’s race, new faces will be joining LSU’s cross country teams. Freshmen Hannah Deworth and Monica Guillot will make their first debut for the Lady Tigers and Bryan Mutell and Joseph St. Cyr will be making their first appearance for the Tigers for the 2014 season.
The Tigers will return to Baton Rouge after competing in the Rice Invitational Cross Country Meet to host the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park on Sept. 20. The women will begin at 8:05 a.m. CDT, and the men will start shortly behind at 9:15 a.m. as each will compete on the 5k course.
For the latest information on LSU’s men’s and women’s cross country teams, fans can follow the Tigers and Lady Tiger on Twitter @LSUTrackField and on Facebook by liking LSU Track & Field.