The Lady Tigers claimed their second LSU Invitational title in a row while recording a nearly perfect score in the team’s annual home meet Saturday.
LSU runners finished first, second, third, fifth and sixth, missing out on a perfect score in NCAA cross country by only one top-six runner.
LSU senior Laura Carleton also earned her second victory in a row at the LSU Invitational, finishing first with a time of 20:34.7.
Behind Carleton, junior Natoya Goule finished second, and senior Dakota Goodman finished third.
“I was very pleased with the women and the effort from last week to this week,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Again, Laura Carleton ran extremely well. I think for running her first time for LSU, Natoya Goule ran pretty well.”
Elliott said he thought his team ran well against a host of local schools, including Lamar University, Southern University, Southeastern Louisiana University and Nicholls State University.
LSU had its full roster of runners, as Goule and senior Charlene Lipsey did not run in the season opener.
“This is the first time we ran at full strength all season, and it showed,” Elliott said. “It doesn’t matter what level of competition there was. When you almost have a perfect score, you know the team ran well.”
The Tigers also ran well Saturday, finishing second out of eight teams at the meet.
Senior Roger Cooke was the Tigers’ top finisher, coming in seventh place with a time of 27:18.3. Sophomore Philip Primeaux was the next Tiger across the finish line with a time of 27:53.1 and placing 10th.
“We did all right,” Cooke said. “We had a couple guys drop out, which hurt our team standings, but overall we ran pretty decently. It is a work in progress with all the young guys we have on this team.”
Lamar finished first on the men’s side with sophomore Sam Stabler winning the individual race.
