The LSU cross country team’s 2008 season ended at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers placed second to last at the SEC Championship meet, and the Lady Tigers placed last.The teams will send 19 runners in an attempt to rebound from last season’s woes to College Station, Texas, this weekend at the Texas A&M Invitational on the Penberthy Intramural Fields. LSU is one of 20 teams competing in the event.The SEC preseason coaches polls didn’t show a lot of confidence in the LSU runners this  season — the men are ranked No. 9, and the women are ranked last. LSU coach Mark Elliott said he is keeping the athletes focused on things they can control rather than paying attention to the poor preseason rankings.”We are really using it to assess the strengths of the team,” Elliott said. “We’re just going to compete the best we can.”Texas A&M’s men’s team has won its home meet for six-straight seasons, something Elliott said his team is not focused on heading into the meet. “We’ll try to unseat the champions, but our true focus is on competing in the SEC meets,” Elliott said.The Lady Tigers lost their top runner from 2008, Christina Porter, to graduation. Porter was the top finisher for the Lady Tigers in five out of six meets, and ran a personal best 5K time at the Auburn Tiger Invitational by completing the course in 18:22.86.During the SEC championship, the Lady Tigers had five of their eight runners rank in the bottom eight of the field. Their top runner, Porter, came across the line as the 51st of 98 runners. But the Lady Tigers are a more experienced bunch this season, boasting four seniors compared to the 2008 team, which had one senior. Elliott said he hopes to turn their fortunes around this season, but isn’t setting the bar too high.”We have to work with the talent level that we have,” Elliott said. “We really have to focus on what we can do to improve ourselves as a team and not worry about what happened last season.Sophomore Laura Carleton is returning to run in 2009 after posting a personal best 5K time of 18:48.24 in last season’s Auburn Tiger Invitational. Senior Kayann Thompson and sophomores Jenna Henssler, Amber Abbott and Jessica Deutsch round out the Lady Tigers returning letter winners.The Tigers had their ups and downs during the 2008 season. They took first place in the LSU Tiger Cross Country Festival, and finished seventh out of 30 teams in the Chili Pepper Invitational. But when they faced SEC competition, the LSU men looked overmatched, placing only two runners in the event’s top 50 during the SEC championship. The Tigers are led by seniors Andy Florek and Alan Sticker. Florek’s fifth-place finish at the Tiger Cross Country Festival highlighted his year. Sticker’s best performance came in the SEC championship meet when he finished the 8K course with a time of 25:31.69 to finish 44th out of 98.—-Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]