In her four-plus years in Baton Rouge, LSU senior Laura Carleton has set the example of what it means to be a student-athlete.

Since walking on at LSU after running for four years at St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, La., Carleton has developed into one of the top-ranked distance runners in the Southeastern Conference.

She won her second consecutive LSU Invitational title Saturday after coming in fifth place at the season-opening Commodore Classic at Vanderbilt.

“She really has passed a lot of peoples’ expectations,” said LSU senior runner Roger Cooke. “I remember watching her in high school, and she wasn’t even the best girl on her team. Watching her train and improve, she has kind of beaten the odds. We haven’t had a walk-on distance girl who was this good in a while.”

In addition to cross country, Carleton runs both indoor and outdoor track for the Lady Tigers. She redshirted the 2011 cross country season because she wanted to focus on track, and she knew she would still be at LSU this fall earning her degree.

As a freshman and sophomore, Carleton competed in every race for the Lady Tigers and improved her best times each season. In 2010, Carleton was the Lady Tigers’ top runner, pacing the team in five of its six meets.

“Every year I have been here, I have intensified my training and improved,” Carleton said. “I figured why use up my last cross country year when I knew I would be back this year trying to get my MBA. My main reason was that since I was continuously improving, why wouldn’t I run the year I would have been at my best?”

Carleton graduated in three years with a management degree in May 2011. At commencement, she received the University Medal for posting the top grade-point average in her graduating class.

When she sat out last fall, she began a two-year MBA program, and she will graduate in May. She said she did not want to enter the program being gone every weekend, so it helped that she redshirted.

“Laura is what you call a student-athlete,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “She is first-class academically and first-class when it comes to running. She is one of those people who you coach and will talk about for the next 20 years.”

Carleton said she hopes to qualify for the national meet in cross country or track but does not like to set specific goals for herself, in terms of times, of where she places individually.

“I have worked hard, and continuous improvement has always been my only goal,” Carleton said. “If you don’t work hard, you won’t be able to compete, no matter how talented you are.”