LSU cross country coach Mark Elliott knows a thing or two about LSU track and field and cross country after dedicating nearly two decades to the University. The Spanish Town, Jamaica native won’t bite his tongue or sugarcoat his words.Elliott said he didn’t know what to expect when he left Jamaica to go to college in America.Before he got his start at LSU, Elliott attended Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas. Elliott was surprised to see that life in southeast Texas was very similar to his home town.”My home town was small relatively, but it was very compact so I was used to a lot of people,” Elliott said. “It was a little bit of an adjustment but not to the point where it made a whole lot of difference.”After earning an associate’s degree, Elliott decided to attend LSU in 1989 after choosing from what he said was a lengthy list of schools. When he arrived on LSU’s campus, Elliott was a 14-time Junior College All-American.Elliott made an immediate impact when he started the 1989 track season as a Tiger. In his first season, Elliott won the Southeastern Conference 10,000 meter title and was the runner-up at the 3,000-meter run at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 1989.Elliott continued to distinguish himself throughout his collegiate career. By the time he earned his bachelor’s degree from LSU in 1991, Elliott was a four-time NCAA All-American, a two-time SEC Champion and a member of two outdoor national championship teams. Elliott calls the national championships the highlights of his time at LSU.”While I was an athlete here, the first time we won the men’s title, it came down to my race against BYU in Utah,” Elliott said. “My race was the last one LSU had on the track. I had to finish in at least third place for us to secure the title.”After a three-year professional running career, Elliott returned to LSU in 1994 as a coaching assistant for the track team.Elliott is now in his fourth season as the head coach of the cross country team. During his time at LSU, Elliott has helped the Tigers work their way back into one of the nation’s premier track programs.Eight members of the 2008 track team under Elliott’s tutelage were named All-American performers. Elliott’s specialty appears to lie in coaching the middle distance runners.Four Lady Tigers in LSU history have won NCAA titles in the 800-meter dash, and three of them have been Elliott’s pupils. The most recent student athlete to claim a title was senior LaTavia Thomas, who won the individual title in 2008.Sophomore distance runner Laura Carleton said Elliott is not one to wave his accomplishments in others’ faces. She said he relates to the team well because he’s been in their position before.”You wouldn’t know that he was such a great runner if you were only around for a couple weeks,” Carleton said. Sophomore distance runner Cullen Doody echoed Carleton’s points.”It’s nice to have a guy who’s kind of been there and knows what you’re going through,” Doody said. ”Coach Elliott was a very good runner, but he knows the experience that he has is relative to everybody else.”Elliott said the major difference between coaching and competing lies with the control that an athlete has over the outcome of the events. But Elliott said a major theme ties everything together for him. “The common denominator for me is that I love LSU,” Elliott said. “This is a school that gave me a chance from an athletic and academic standpoint.”—-Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]
Cross Country: Runner, coach makes career from time at LSU
November 12, 2009