After a disappointing performance at the Crimson Classic on Oct. 17, the LSU men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama,  on Friday for the Southeastern Conference Championships at Harry Pritchett Running Park.
The women will begin at 9 a.m., and the men will begin at 10 a.m. 
The teams will have to return to the same place they struggled before, as the SEC Championships are held on the same course. The men finished in 15th place and the women placed ninth at the Crimson Classic.
Senior Philip Primeaux led the Tigers with a 28th-place finish, while junior Travis Pope finished 30th and freshman DC Lipani came in at No. 100 to round out the Tigers’ top finishes.
Five runners finished inside the top-100 for the Lady Tigers, led by junior Morgan Schuetz’s No. 31 finish.
Senior runner Andria Aguilar said the big take away from the Crimson Classic was running the course at Harry Pritchett Running Park, so the runners know what to expect when they return for the Conference Championships.
“I’m definitely glad we got to see the course last week,” Aguilar said. “That course is hard. If you look at the results, there were a lot of people that ran slower than they have all year. But we have been training for courses like this all year. We are ready for it now.”
The Tigers are running with the results from last season’s SEC Championships in mind, where Arkansas accounted for the first-place finishes in both races, while the LSU men’s team finished in 12th place and the women’s team finished in 14th place.
Freshman DC Lipani said he hopes familiarizing himself with the course will give him an advantage in his first appearance at the SEC Championships and will lead to top finishes — and vengeance against the Razorbacks — for the Tigers and Lady Tigers.
“We know the fourth mile is going to be the hardest because that’s when it tacks on both hills up the race, but we will just have to keep pushing,” Lipani said. “It’s tough, but we are up for it.”