BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU women’s track and field and cross-country programs are signing Baton Rouge High School’s Natalie Venkataraman, Head Coach Dennis Shaver announced on Thursday.
Venkataraman will join a stacked women’s distance class of 2024 that includes six other freshmen additions in Maddie Gump, Jenna Key, Ahry Comer, Anna Pierce, Yuya Sawada and Taylor Tarpley.
“I am excited for this opportunity to join the LSU track team,” said Venkataraman. “I choose LSU because of how welcoming Coach [Houston] Franks and the rest of the team were in the recruiting process and I wanted to be a part of a team that is cohesive and motivated to win. I am most excited to meet the other incoming signees and travel to meets all over the country representing LSU.”
The hometown hero currently has three state runner-up finishes in the 1600 meter, where she holds personal-best times of 4:57.43 (indoors) and 5:11.80 (outdoors). She also has a runner-up finish in the 3200 meter where she has PR’s of 11:08.80 (indoors) and 11:18.05 (outdoors).
Currently finishing up her final season at Baton Rouge H.S., Venkataraman also holds a personal-best time of 2:15.33 in the 800 meter. She also has cross-country PR’s of 13:17.4 in the two mile, 18:10.4 in the three mile and 19:03.8 in the 5000.
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