Former high school standout Philip Primeaux hadn’t run competitively in over a year and a half, but picked up right where he left off.
Primeaux finished 8,000 meters in 28:43.6 at the LSU Invitational at Highland Road Park, finishing fourth on the team and 16th overall.
The redshirt freshman won two high school Baton Rouge Metro Cross Country Championships at Highland Road Park and spent most of his cross country career running on Baton Rouge’s popular three-mile course.
But Primeaux, who still has four years of eligibility, decided against running collegiately during his freshman year.
“I hadn’t been looked at too much by any college [for scholarships] and wasn’t considering it as a serious option for something to do [to pay for] school,” Primeaux said.
Primeaux was one of Louisiana’s most decorated runners in high school, winning the Louisiana Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year award in 2008 and 2009.
The Catholic High alumnus won individual 5A cross country state championships in 2008 and 2009 and won three individual track state championships in the 3,200-meter run, along with a championship for his participation on the 2009 four-by-800 meter relay team.
“I guess he took a year off because he wasn’t sure he wanted to run in college,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Not every good high school athlete decides to do it in college, but because running was a major part of his high school life, he missed it, and now he wants to do it it.”
Elliott said Primeaux adjusted well to college running because it was obvious he stayed in shape during his year off.
Primeaux was injured for the team’s last meet at the McNeese Stampede but said he’s healed and should run the 10,000-meters this weekend in the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Ark.
 
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Contact Andrew Chapple at [email protected]