The LSU cross country team looks to show progress one week before the Southeastern Conference championships as they head to Tuscaloosa on Friday for the 2013 Crimson Classic.
The Tigers are coming off a disappointing 11th place finish in the Chilli Pepper Festival two weeks ago, the worst finish the team experienced all year. The Lady Tigers struggled as well, finishing ninth and getting only one runner in the top 100.
“We need to improve on everything,” said LSU coach Khadevis Robinson. “We have been working on the same kind of stuff, and now we just need to plug in and get it.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers earned extra time to prepare for the meet, with no race scheduled last weekend. This was the first time LSU did not have a meet scheduled for the weekend since the start of the season.
Despite already having what they needed to compete, the added week helped both the Tigers and the Lady Tigers improve, Robinson said.
“I think that weeks where we don’t have a meet, [Robinson] works us even harder through workouts,” said freshman runner Katie Stevenson. “We have more time to recover, so he will push us a little more, and that helps.”
The Classic also represents the second 8000 meter race of the teams’ season, which is the same distance as the SEC Championships next Friday. The only other race of that distance was the Mountain Dew Invitational on Sept. 14 — coincidently run on the same course as the SEC Championships.
Robinson said the most important aspect the team needs to learn is to not be afraid to rise to the challenge.
“At the end of the day, its about putting the work in and getting things done,” Robinson said. “Now it is all a matter of being consistent. Everybody is going to put in the work sometimes, now they have got to do it all the time.”
This will be the LSU’s first trip to the Classic since 2009, when the Tigers’ finished tenth and the Lady Tigers finished eighth. The Tigers finished with only one runner in the top 50 and the Lady Tigers finished with three in top 40.
The Lady Tigers will begin their race at 5 p.m. while the Tigers will begin their race at 5:30 p.m.