Despite the LSU cross country team’s mediocre season, several impressive individual performances shined throughout the year.
The Tigers finished 10th out of 11 teams while the Lady Tigers finished last in the Southeastern Conference Championship meet.
“We didn’t do as well in [the Southeastern Conference Championship meet] as we wanted to,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott.
The Tigers were led by senior Cullen Doody, who placed No. 19 overall at the SEC championship meet and won the Mississippi State Invitational meet.
“From an individual stand point I was happy, but I wish the team had done a bit better overall,” Doody said.
LSU also had impressive performances from redshirt senior Richard Chautin who finished No. 6 overall and led the team at the LSU invitational.
In addition to Chautin’s strong showing, the Tigers welcomed two time High School Baton Rouge Metro Champion redshirt freshman Philip Primeaux back to competitive running after he took a year off because he originally didn’t want to run collegiately.
“I started thinking about the idea of running on the team,” Primeaux said. “I talked to some guys that used to run or ran for other schools and they recommended it.”
Primeaux was one of the few consistent scorers for the Tigers along with junior Roger Cooke. Redshirt freshman Bryan Mutell also finished the season strong with a fourth-place team finish in the South Central Regional.
“I think the team ran pretty well,” Mutell said. “We have a young team so I think we have a good base to go forward on. We’ll be a year older and a year faster. I think the mindset of the team has changed for the better from years past.”
Senior Laura Carleton ran unattached because she used her redshirt this season since she’ll be in school for another year.
“Instead of using up my last year this year, I wanted to wait until next year,” Carleton said. “Hopefully I’ll be faster and I think our team will be stronger too because I’m the oldest on the team so no one is going to be leaving.”
Carleton won the LSU invitational and the McNeese Cowboy Stampede, while finishing No. 30 in the extremely competitive Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival.
The top two scorers for the Lady Tigers this season were juniors Charlene Lipsey and Leigh-Ann Naccari.
“I think the girls’ team did well overall,” Naccari said. “Many of the girls were able to improve upon their performances from last year, so hopefully that will carry over to the track season and cross country next year.”
Juniors Brea and Dakota Goodman, along with junior Laura Aleman rounded out the consistent scorers for the Lady Tigers.
The future looks bright for the women, as they return Carleton and all scorers next season.
On the other end, the men will shift their focus to the bright futures of the maturing freshmen, while saying goodbye to their top two runners.
 
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Contact Andrew Chapple at [email protected]