In the last meet before the Southeastern Conference Championship, the LSU cross country team finished well at the Chile Pepper Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
The men’s team finished the 10K meet in 16th place overall, paced by junior Jimmy Wiggins.
Wiggins continues his impressive season, finishing in 33rd place overall with a time of 30:50.82. Wiggins has been named SEC athlete of the week two of the last three weeks.
Behind Wiggins, sophomores Andrew Huston (32:12.92) and Roland LeBlanc (32:34.24) crossed in 101st and 119th place respectively for the Tigers.
Junior Katie Denton paced the women’s team for a 21st place finish. Denton finished the 6K race with a personal best time of 22:49.20. She finished in 72nd place.
Sophomore Michelle Hymel (23:07.61) finished in 97th place, followed by freshman Jennifer Radecker (24:04.80) in 146th and sophomore Megan Kleibert (24:13.35) in 155th.
“I feel really good about how we ran today,” said coach Mark Elliot. “Everyone who ran posted personal best times on this course. Obviously, we wish the positioning was higher, but we also have to be realistic.”
The cross country team returns to competition Nov. 3 in Athens, Ga., for the SEC Championship.
Tennis
LSU men’s tennis player Ken Skupski has been nothing short of amazing this fall.
Skupski defeated his fourth ranked singles opponent this weekend in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Region III Championships in Memphis, Tenn.
Skupski def. No. 19 Paul Ciorascu of Ole Miss, 7-5, 6-4, in the round of 32 Saturday. The encore came later that evening, as Skupski dropped No. 73 Scott Brown of Vanderbilt, 6-2, 6-1.
“Ken has beaten four ranked opponents this season,” said coach Jeff Brown. “He is looking really good right now for a top 40 ranking in the spring.”
The Lady Tigers also picked up some big wins at the ITA Southwest Regional Championships hosted in Fort Worth, Texas.
In singles play, No. 99 Rocio Fantilli advanced the the quarterfinals. Fantilli defeated Nataliya Ostravska of the University of Louisiana – Monroe, 6-4, 6-1, Izabela Mijic of Baylor, 6-2, 6-3, and Texas’ Ana Saaibi, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, on her way to a quarterfinal berth.
Marina Chiarelli and Camilia Caliari also posted victories in singles play on the first day of the championships.
Chiarelli defeated Texas Tech’s Hristiyana Gocheva, 6-4, 6-3, and Karla Mancinas of Texas-Christian University, 6-4, 7-5, in the first two rounds of the tournament.
Caliari upended Megan Schmulback of North Texas, 6-3, 6-0, in the first round and proceeded to defeat TCU’s Paige Brown, 6-3, 6-1, in round two.