Despite not qualifying for the NCAA Championship meet, the LSU women’s cross country team had one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history.
The Lady Tigers started the season strong, finishing ninth at the Commodore Classic at Vanderbilt before winning the LSU Invitational and the McNeese Cowboy Stampede.
LSU coach Mark Elliott said his team’s best performance of the season was a fourth place finish against tough Southeastern Conference competition at the Chile Pepper Festival in Arkansas.
“The women ran awesome,” Elliott said. “I think that is our highest finish ever in a large meet with that amount of competition.”
The women finished out the season with a seventh place finish at the SEC Championship meet and an eighth place finish at the NCAA Regional meet. Both were the highest finishes for an LSU team in years.
Senior Laura Carleton led the Lady Tigers all season. She finished with two victories and two other top-five finishes while pacing the Lady Tigers in each race.
“This is the best cross [country] season I’ve ever had,” Carleton said. “My times have been improving all year, which is what you are looking for. It is not just me, though. Everyone on this team just keeps getting better.”
The lineup behind Carleton was experienced. The normal lineup consisted of seniors Brea Goodman, Dakota Goodman and Charlene Lipsey along with juniors Natoya Goule and Leigh-Ann Naccari.
“This is the most successful and consistent group of ladies I’ve had,” Elliott said. “We had another team that did really well, but in terms of overall success, this team is the best.”
The men’s team entered the season with an inexperienced roster and struggled to find consistency throughout the season.
The Tigers finished last out of 13 teams at the SEC meet and 18th of 19 at the NCAA regional. Elliott said the team struggled to find runners who could fill the fourth and fifth spots in the lineup.
Senior Roger Cooke was the most successful runner on the team. Cooke, the only senior, led the team in all but one of its races, finished third at the McNeese Stampede and finished seventh at the LSU Invitational.
“When all is said and done, the guys had a decent season considering what we came to the table with,” Elliott said. “Hopefully next year they will continue to get better, and we can pull better results as we go along.”
