The LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to Arkansas on Saturday to compete in the Chili Pepper Invitation. The teams said they expect the race to help prepare them for the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 15 in Waco, Texas. “Instead of an 8k, it’s going to be a 10k,” said senior Jacob Simmons. “We’re all looking forward to that to see how it all goes because at regionals it’s a 10k race.” The competition level and the course itself will also prepare the Tigers for meets later in the season.”Traditionally, of all the years I’ve been going to Chili Pepper, it’s been one of the best meets in the country,” said coach Mark Elliott. “I like going there because it’s a challenging course, but it’s also a fair course.” The LSU men finished No. 10, and the women finished No. 22 in last season’s event. Simmons and senior Christina Porter, LSU’s only remaining runners from that race, finished the race 33rd and 147th, respectively. Simmons said he’s ready for this weekend after dropping out of the Auburn Tiger Invitational two weeks ago because of illness.”At Auburn, I wasn’t mentally in the race. Basically, I was a pansy,” Simmons said. “I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.” The teams are coming off their first bye week of the season and feeling better prepared for future meets.”Mentally, a week off is always something good,” Porter said. “You feel like you can progress a little bit more in workouts and try a little bit harder because you don’t have to worry about resting for the next meet.”The Lady Tigers plan to use the experience from the meet this weekend to gauge how much they need to improve.”On the women’s side, it’s just another chance for them to be exposed to Division-I competition, and they get a chance to see how they stack up against good competition and where they have to go,” Elliott said. Elliott’s approach to the women is evaluating them on a week-by-week basis. Most LSU women recorded personal records in the 5k distance in LSU’s last meet, the Auburn Tiger Invitational.”There have been [personal records] all season, and improvement starts by getting [personal records],” Elliott said.Elliott said the competition at the Chili Pepper Invitational, including the host team, No. 27 Arkansas, should give the men’s team an idea of how good it is. Simmons and his teammates are eager to prove how well they can perform against the strong competition. “I think a top-10 performance would be outstanding and phenomenal for us, and that’s what we’re going to shoot for,” Simmons said. “Anything less would be an upset.”—-Contact Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]